Konoha's Two Demons
by Excele Kurokami
Summary: Upon Team 7's creation, a kunoichi who was jailed last year is added to their ranks. What is her story? How will she affect Team 7's growth? NaruSaku InoFemOC
1. Chapter 1

Title: Konoha's Two Demons

Pairings: Naruto/Sakura, femOC/Ino/(secret character!)

Summary: Upon Team 7's creation, a ninja who was jailed last year is added to their ranks. What is her story? How will she affect Team 7's growth? NaruSaku InoFemOC

-Primer-

_'thoughts'_

"speech"

"Izzy's (Inner Sakura) two cents"

"**Jutsu!"**

"_**Kyūbi, curse sealed ninja and transformed Jinchūriki"**_

_[setting and/or time]_

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the OCs and custom arcs.**

Chapter 1: Team Selections, Team 7's Sensei appears

Naruto had been through a lot in the last few days. Failing the test for the third time, being tricked by Mizuki into stealing a scroll of forbidden jutsu, learning the shadow clone jutsu, learning that the Kyūbi that tried to destroy Konoha was sealed inside of him, seeing Iruka go so far for him, using shadow clones to beat Mizuki, getting his forehead protector and graduating, and best of all, getting treated to Ichiraku ramen by Iruka. Meeting his Hokage rival, Konohamaru and beating his former sensei, the closet pervert Ebisu with Harem no jutsu was great as well.

Naruto was beaming as he waited for the squad selections. He was hoping to be on the same team as Sakura-chan. He also hoped Sasuke would wind up somewhere else, like the bottom of a hole or something. He had nothing against the guy really, he just knew Sakura-chan liked him and that was enough to piss Naruto off. Also, he had this...air about him, like he was above everyone else. _'Not me!'_ Naruto beamed, _'I'm going to be the next Hokage!'_

Right now, Naruto was in Heaven and Hell. To his direct left was Haruno Sakura-chan, the love of his life. She wore her headband like a girl would normally wear a hairband. She was smiling and her emerald eyes were sparkling, but it wasn't because Naruto was beside her. To Sakura's left was Uchiha Sasuke, the bastard that Sakura liked. He wore his headband like Naruto wore his, the traditional way. He was looking off to the side, quiet as usual. Sakura was staring at him and her face was rivalling her unusual hair color. Naruto didn't really think her hair was weird, if anything, it made it so much easier for him to find her. As one would guess, only three things occupied Naruto's mind on a daily basis: Ramen, Ninja (Hokage specifically, Naruto was an expert on them) and Sakura-chan. He didn't really mind being 'stupid' since it made more room for what he liked.

Naruto was broken out of his thoughts by Iruka-sensei walking in with a scroll. He stood at the front of the class, gave them the boring speech about their duties as genin, then he started reading names off a list. Naruto half listened, mostly for his name and Sakura-chan's. Not hearing them for the first squad, he decided to keep daydreaming. After six squads were formed, Naruto heard his name.

"Squad 7: Uzumaki Naruto...Haruno Sakura..."

Naruto had a huge smile on his face as he stood up with his fists held up in triumph. _'IT PAID OFF! Wishing for this has paid off!'_ he thought in joy while he mentally skipped around on Cloud 9. Sakura, on the other hand, was depressed. She had her head on the desk and held it as if she had a headache. _'Out of all the people in class, it had to be Naruto. I would have preferred Ino-pig to be on my team if it meant Naruto wasn't here, even if it meant competition for Sasuke-kun. That is if he wound up on my team at all,'_ she thought.

"And Uchiha Sasuke."

Naruto and Sakura had completely reversed their positions and thoughts. Now Sakura was on Cloud 9 thinking, _'I'm on Sasuke-kun's team! Who cares if Naruto is here.'_ Izzy was partying and yelled, 'Hell Yeah!'. Naruto was holding his head and thinking, _'why did that teme have to be on my team? Now Sakura-chan will be paying attention to him and not me.'_

Naruto was about to protest to Sasuke being on his team when the door slid open. An ANBU wearing an owl mask walked in and bowed apologetically while presenting a scroll to Iruka. "What is this?" he asked as he opened it up and quickly read it. Something he read made him pale slightly, but then he got himself under control. "Due to special order, Team 7's members have...changed slightly," he said while looking at the three. Naruto and Sakura thought that the person they were happy to be teamed up with was going to another squad. Iruka started the team's roll again, "Team 7: Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke."

Everyone had the same thoughts: _'What difference is there to the team? It is the same three people.'_

A second later, three ANBU escorted/dragged a young girl who was bound in chains, shackles and an iron visor, a scarf with a cracked leaf plate on it in her hands. Iruka coughed slightly, "and Kazeneko Yue."

_'Huh?'_ Naruto and Sakura thought at the same moment.

_'A four man team? I alone am enough,'_ Sasuke grunted and looked away from the new weakling to quake in his shadow.

Several hours later, the four genin were siting in the classroom, waiting for their sensei. Naruto was busy pacing around, Sasuke was sitting at a desk and Sakura was leaning against it. The newbie, Kazeneko, had opened the window and was sitting in a chair, her head resting on her arms on the window sill as she dozed lightly. Naruto decided he had waited long enough and grabbed a blackboard eraser and was busy rigging the door.

"What are you doing Naruto?" Sakura asked. "Our sensei is the only one who is late! This is payback for making us wait!" Naruto said, living up to his title of being Konoha's #1 loudest ninja in addition to being its #1 prankster. Sakura sighed, "our sensei is a jōnin, he isn't going to fall for a simple trap like that." Izzy punched her fist forward and yelled, "Shānnarō! I love these kinds of things!" Sasuke didn't give a damn about Naruto's antics. Never has and never will. He figured Naruto would end up returning to the academy once his uselessness was exposed, same with the two girls. Kazeneko looked back at the commotion, then lay back on her arms with a hummed chuckle.

Plain and simple, everyone, including the stone wall that was Sasuke, were unnerved by this new girl. Her name was weird, she showed up looking like a prisoner, she had loosely tied her headband around her neck after the restraints had been removed and then she just sat at the window and stayed there. She had these weird marks on her left cheek and neck too. Even stranger was the bandages that covered almost her entire neck.

A noise caught the attention of the genin as someone approached the door. Everyone watched a silver haired man open the door. The blackboard eraser fell down and bounced off his head. '_HE FELL FOR IT? IS THIS OUR SENSEI?'_ Sakura and Naruto thought. Sasuke was stunned, '_he fell for the idiot's trap? Is he really a jōnin?'_

The silver haired jōnin picked up the blackboard eraser, the genin noticing that his headband covered his left eye and a face mask covered the lower half of his face. '_Another weirdo?'_ Naruto and Sakura thought in concert once more. "I'm sorry sensei. I tried to stop him, but Naruto wouldn't listen," Sakura explained. "That was so cool!" Inner Sakura said as she was sure the jōnin and Sasuke-kun didn't see any trace of her enjoying Naruto's prank.

The jōnin looked at the genin in the room, then the eraser. "My first impression of you four is... you are idiots and I don't like you," he said as if it was the common response. Sasuke looked a little angry, Sakura was stunned, Naruto was ticked off, Kazeneko's small back was mostly unreadable but she seemed mildly angry if the sound of her feet kicking the wall was proof. "Anyways," the jōnin said, "we will meet at Team 7's training grounds tomorrow. I'll give all of you a map when you go to leave. Make sure to bring all of your ninja tools and weapons."

Three of the four got up and were about to leave when the jōnin spoke up again, "oh, by the way." The four looked at him again. "Don't eat anything for breakfast," he said, catching the interest of Sakura and Naruto. "Why?" Sakura asked. "Because you'll just throw it up anyways," he said in a grave tone. Three of the four showed shock at this, but left with a map in their hand and the simple warning in their heads. Yue snatched her map and vaulted out the window to the ground three stories down.

The Jōnin paused for a few moments after they left, then took out a small book and wrote the four names of his new 'students.' He scratched at his covered cheek. _'That small girl seemed familiar...'_

**AN~**

**First chapter done. Things will be the same until around the Wave mission, then it will start changing more and more. Please don't butcher me. Even I don't think this is ready for posting.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Two bells, four genin, no food

_**Note: Review responses after Author Notes/Omake!**_

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto.**

Sakura was the first to arrive at training ground 3, or so she thought. In the middle of the training field was none other than Kazeneko, lying flat on her back in the grass. Sakura decided to really look at the girl now.

Aside from her neck bandages and headband/scarf, she had other things that set her apart from the crowd. She wore almost knee length black shorts. Around her right thigh were a bunch of thin, unique kunai put through loops on the belt. She wore a normal looking white sleeveless shirt. She wore a hooded coat with a zipper in the front, but she left it open. She had wild dark grey hair with the forelocks almost falling into her eyes. The girl had let her hair grow longer at the sides to frame her face with her dark locks and the rest reached down to lightly graze her shoulders. From what Sakura could remember, she had a dull orange eye and a pale green one, left and right respectively. A katana was lying on the ground to her right along with her sandals, leaving her feet bare to the light breeze. As a further note, the girl had a petite build, being about 122 cm tall. All in all, the girl seemed like a ten or eleven year old.

_'She would probably look pretty cute if it weren't for those bandages,'_ Sakura thought to herself. She was tempted to remove them, but the girl sat up when she was within ten feet of her and waved as she put his sandals on and placed her short sword over her left hip. Sakura was going to say hello when Naruto's loud voice interrupted, something about ramen.

_[Three hours later...]_

"He's late..." Naruto groaned, exhausted from not eating. Sakura's stomach was growling as well. Sasuke was off to the side, but an occasional growl could be heard from his stomach. Kazeneko seemed to be the only one not bothered by hunger as she balanced herself with a one handed handstand on one of the three wooden posts in the clearing.

_'Is this how our sensei is?'_ Sakura thought.

Another twenty minutes passed before the silver haired jōnin appeared. "Sorry everyone I-" he started. "YOU'RE LATE, SENSEI!" Sakura and Naruto yelled. Even Sasuke looked like he wanted to say something. Kazeneko thrust herself off the post, flipped, and landed on her feet behind Sakura and Naruto, then sprung forward to fall flat on her face due to a bad landing.

Once all five were seated, the Jōnin started, "why don't you four introduce yourselves?" Sakura cocked her head to the side slightly, "introduce ourselves? What do we say exactly?" The jōnin looked skyward, "I don't know, maybe likes, dislikes. Hobbies, your dreams for the future," he said. "You first!" Sakura countered.

The man nodded, "I'm Hatake Kakashi. My likes and dislikes...Hmm. I have lots of hobbies... I am not telling you anything about my dreams." Sakura turned to the others, "we only learned his name..." she sighed. Kakashi pointed at Naruto, "You, spiky blonde one, you go first."

Naruto sat up straighter, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I like instant ramen, cup ramen and the ramen at Ichiraku's, especially when Iruka-sensei treats me to it. I hate the three minutes I have to wait for the water to boil for my ramen. I like tasting new flavours of ramen and giving the older ninja the run around!" Kakashi had been watching him the whole time, _'this kid has ramen on the brain...'_ Naruto smiled suddenly, "my dream is to become the Hokage and have everyone in the village acknowledge and respect me!" At this, Kakashi's thoughts changed a little, _'he had a rather unique upbringing...'_ He turned to Sakura next.

"I'm Haruno Sakura," she said brightly. "The thing I like- no, the person I like..." she looked at Sasuke and squealed quietly while blushing. "My dream is..." another squeal as she looked at Sasuke. _'Girls her age are more interested in love than ninjutsu,'_ Kakashi mused. "What about dislikes?" he asked. "I HATE Naruto," she said sternly, Naruto seemed to crumple from those words. Kakashi looked to the Uchiha.

Sasuke grunted before speaking. "I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I hate a lot of things and I don't like anything. I don't have a dream. I have an ambition: revive my clan and kill that person."

_'As I expected,'_ Kakashi thought. He also noticed Naruto shiver. _'Does Naruto think Sasuke means him?'_ Kakashi nodded to the fourth one.

Kazeneko looked around for a reason to be quiet, then gave up. "Kazeneko Yue of the Ruuko clan. I like open spaces, warm sunlight, cool breezes, high places, trees, fine weapons, machines, meat and..." she got real quiet, then shook her head and continued, "I hate closed areas and not being able to eat. As for hobbies...I guess just running and jumping around roofs and trees. I also like climbing trees and swimming. I don't have a dream." she growled in a surprisingly husky voice.

_'As one would expect from what she had to go through for a year in the ANBU deep level 3 prison. Appears that she also became claustrophobic there as well. I wonder if that is the only reason she changed so much?'_ Kakashi mused.

_'Ruuko clan...Where have I heard that before,'_ Sasuke wondered. Then he gave up since it didn't matter. Nobody other than him mattered, maybe Kakashi would matter if he proved to be an adequate ninja.

"Alright, it's time for a training exercise," Kakashi said, getting an aggravated groan from Naruto. "Sensei, we already did lots of training at the academy," Sakura said. "Well, this is a special training session," Kakashi said, "it is used to determine something...shocking." The four eyed him. "W-what is this shocking something?" Sakura asked. "Out of all the students who graduated the academy this year," Kakashi said, "only nine of them will become genin, the rest will return to the academy" All of them, aside from Kazeneko, showed shock at the statement. "That's not fair!" Naruto yelled. Sasuke remained silent, but looked more determined than before. Sakura looked worried.

"Now, the test is simple," Kakashi said, "It is a simple survival game." Naruto and Sakura looked at him with a 'go on' look. "I have two bells with me, the point of the game is for each of you to get a bell to pass," Kakashi explained while holding up the bells in question, which he tied to his belt. "Sensei, there are only two bells and four of us," Sakura said. "Exactly, that means two of you will be returning to the academy regardless," Kakashi explained. The effect was instant, each was determined to get a bell for themselves. Only Kazeneko seemed to realize what was happening, but she didn't say anything, just looked at the ground. _'She knows, but her leadership abilities seem to have died on that night. She __can't lead anymore,'_ Kakashi realized, seeing Kazeneko as much less of a threat to his trap. "Come at me with everything you have, with every tool you possess."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Naruto asked, "you couldn't even dodge a black board eraser..."

Kakashi didn't even look at Naruto. "Feel free to ignore the idiot, the dead last of the class always make lots of noise. It's all they know how to do."

Naruto rushed at Kakashi with a kunai, or tried to. In a flash, Kakashi appeared behind Naruto, pointing the boy's own kunai at the base of his skull. "I didn't say start yet, but at least this means you are taking this seriously," Kakashi said while eye smiling.

Sakura and Sasuke were impressed with the speed and skill Kakashi had shown. Sasuke knew that was probably just the tip of the ice berg.

Kakashi released Naruto. "Now that we are all ready, begin!" Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura rushed for the edges of the clearing while Kakashi and Yue flew off in different directions.

_[Ten minutes later...]_

Kakashi surveyed his surroundings, '_Sasuke is hidden somewhere close by. Sakura is fairly well hidden. Kazeneko is a small distance away, probably using her hearing to monitor me. Naruto is...'_ Said ninja was standing in front of Kakashi, arms crossed with a defiant look on his face. "Something is off here." Kakashi muttered. "That would be your haircut!" Naruto shouted as he pointed at Kakashi's head. "Do you even know what a ninja is?" Kakashi asked. "It doesn't matter!" Naruto yelled as he rushed Kakashi. Kakashi reached back to his pouch, halting Naruto's rush. Both Sakura and Sasuke were waiting to see what weapon he used. To everyone's shock, he pulled out a book: Icha Icha Paradise. The silver haired jōnin looked ready to take on the world with the perverted book as his weapon.

"Wha-what are you doing?" Naruto asked as Kakashi opened the book. "What does it look like?," Kakashi asked while almost completely absorbed in the book, "I'm reading. Feel free to attack me." Naruto shook his head, "why are you reading it now? I could really hurt you," Kakashi flipped a page, "I want to know what is going to happen in this next part, and no matter what you do, you won't even touch me with your skills." Naruto got angry and charged at Kakashi. He delivered a punch, but Kakashi dodged it while still reading. Three more attacks were launched before Naruto stepped back, preparing a strategy. Kakashi suddenly vanished. "What?" Naruto asked. Kakashi reappeared behind Naruto, his hands held together with his index and middle fingers pointing upwards. _'Tiger hand seal,'_ Sakura thought with a massive dose of dread. Sasuke wanted to see what was going to happen. **"Hidden Leaf Village Secret Finger Jutsu: One Thousand Years of Death!"** Kakashi shouted as he drove his fingers into Naruto's butt, then sent Naruto flying a decent distance away and into a small river.

Sasuke was ready to fall out of his tree. Kazeneko was a lot closer than Kakashi thought. She winced at the sight and sat down quickly. _'That wasn't a jutsu at all,'_ Sakura thought blandly, _'just a really powerful ass poke.'_ Naruto crawled out of the river, holding his wounded butt. "What the hell?" Naruto shouted. "A ninja must form a plan before attacking his opponent. It is also fatal to allow an enemy to get behind you," Kakashi lectured, still nose deep in his book. Naruto had recovered and held his fingers in a seal resembling a cross, **"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"** he shouted as four clones appeared next to him. Sasuke was surprised, having witnessed Naruto's pathetic clones before. _'Naruto...'_ Sakura thought, _'he's kinda cool.'_ Kakashi glanced up from his book. _'So the rumours were true, he can create true, full clones rather than the fakes an academy cadet normally uses,'_ he thought. "Impressive, but it won't work on me." One of the Narutos stepped up, "why won't it work?" As if to betray him, his stomach growled. "In your current condition, you can't maintain such a high level jutsu for too long," Kakashi said. Sasuke and Sakura's stomachs growled as well, telling them they were in the same boat.

"How about this then?" a Naruto asked as it appeared behind Kakashi and grabbed him. _'What?'_ Kakashi thought in shock. "While I was in the water, I made a clone and sent him upstream. I then used the shadow clone jutsu in front of you so you wouldn't notice him sneaking up on you," Naruto said. _'A distraction, from Naruto of all people?'_ Kakashi thought. He smiled slightly under the mask, _'this kid is full of surprises, but.'_ Naruto rushed his trapped teacher and swung his fist. "Ow!" a Naruto yelped as he was punched in the face, then dispelled. "Huh?" Naruto gasped. What followed next was a bunch of jumbled accusations, ranging from smell to imagined signs, as well as an all out Naruto VS Naruto brawl. Sasuke sighed as he watched the embarrassing scene unfold. "Wait," a Naruto said, "if we cancel the jutsu, then it will be you and Kakashi-sensei!" More bickering followed until there was one badly beaten Naruto, a single tear rolling down his cheek in shame. _'Naruto is not cool at all,'_ Sakura thought. She didn't notice Sasuke slip away, but decided to go look for him since she hadn't found him yet.

_[Not too much later...]_

"Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yelled. She had been searching for Sasuke for the last few minutes, but to no avail. _'Where could he be?'_ she thought. She was about to start again when a voice spoke up behind her, "Sa...Sakura.." She turned and saw Sasuke on the ground, impaled with kunai, shuriken and needles. So many thoughts ran through her head at once, she screamed and fainted. She didn't notice Kakashi a small distance behind her, holding his hands in what would have been a familiar seal, a genjutsu. He sighed at how easy it was to deal with her as he shunshined away. A branch nearby shook as someone landed on it, then shook again when they jumped off.

Sasuke heard Sakura's scream, but it was of no concern to him. He happened to stumble upon his prey a few minutes after hearing the scream. Kakashi was leaning against a tree, reading his perverted book again. Sasuke was about to move out when the bushes behind him parted. Sasuke whirled to confront whoever it was, and found Kazeneko behind him. "Backup..." Kazeneko explained. "Don't need it," Sasuke muttered as he walked into the clearing with Kazeneko following anyways. "Hmm?" Kakashi hummed as the two genin stepped into the clearing. "A team attack, huh?" Kakashi asked. "I'm different from the others," Sasuke said. "I know, that is why I am doing this," Kakashi said as he put the book away and drew a kunai. Sasuke drew his kunai as Kazeneko drew her ninjato, holding it in a reverse grip. Sasuke sighed, "I told you I don't need you." Kazeneko showed no signs of leaving.

Sasuke rushed the jōnin and opted for close combat. He delivered a quick strike aimed at Kakashi's face, but it was blocked. He followed up with a sweep kick to the head again and it was caught again. Kakashi watched in shock as the Uchiha used his captured limbs as posts and attempted to deliver a kick with his free foot. Kakashi released Sasuke's arm to block the kick, but had to shift his body back as Sasuke reached for a bell. He threw the Uchiha a small distance away. Kazeneko charged forward and swung at Kakashi's side, slicing a bell free. Kakashi grabbed Kazeneko's outstretched arm and tossed her over to Sasuke.

"What now?" she asked as she stood up.

A loud crack was heard as a branch was sliced off a tree and another Kazeneko flew out of the hole it created. "Wha-" Sasuke started as Kazeneko ran at him, then passed him. The new Kazeneko slashed at the other one, weak lightning chakra dancing on her sword.

The first Kazeneko turned so that her right eye was locked on the new one, almost like her left eye didn't work. Sasuke saw the mistake and understood. He performed the seals, **"****Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!****"** engulfing both the Kazeneko copy and Kakashi in flames as the real Kazeneko did a rough hand spring and a quick jump to get out of the way. "Don't think I'll thank you for this," Sasuke said, then noticed Kazeneko had gone to the edge of the clearing, looking at him. _'__Does she want me to follow her? I need to get that bell,'_ Sasuke thought. Kazeneko got the picture and left with a sigh. Sasuke searched the area, but didn't find a trace of the jōnin or the freed bell. "Where is it?" he asked.

"Down here!"

Sasuke didn't have time to react as Kakashi grabbed his leg and dragged him underground. When Kakashi left the clearing, chuckling and lecturing, Sasuke was buried up to his neck in the ground.

_[Back at the posts]_

Naruto found an odd sight a few moments ago. Here he was, trying to figure out how to catch Kakashi unawares and get a bell, and what does he find? Lunch! His rumbling stomach told him to take them and eat them. He sat down with the boxed lunches between his legs. It wasn't ramen, but his stomach didn't care right now.

"Thanks for the meal!" he exclaimed as he clapped his hands before his face in thanks.

"Hey buddy," Kakashi said from the stone behind him, "what do you think you are doing?"

"I was joking?" Naruto tried.

Sakura sat up quickly. "Sasuke-kun?" she asked, looking around quickly. Figuring Sasuke was nearby and injured, she got up and ran in a random direction. She just happened to find Sasuke. '_H-h-h-his...head?'_ Sakura thought for a moment. "Sakura?" Sasuke asked. _'IT'S SASUKE-KUN'S TALKING HEAD!'_ she thought as she shrieked, then fainted again.

_[Fifteen minutes later...]_

Sakura and Sasuke were siting on either side of the post Naruto was tied to. The post behind Sakura was decorated with Kazeneko's unconscious form. "What happened to the dobes?" Sasuke asked. "Naruto is being punished. As for Kazeneko...I don't really know. I found her passed out from chakra exhaustion by the river," Kakashi said. The three genin looked down at the ground. "I have some good news for you four though," Kakashi said cheerfully, "none of you are going back to the academy." Everyone's hopes shot up while Kazeneko started coming to. "Do you mean..?" Naruto asked with a lot of hope.

"Yes," Kakashi said, "I suggest you four give up being ninjas!" Everyone's faces displayed varying levels of shock.

Kakashi started telling them what they did wrong. "Sakura! Instead of helping Naruto, who was right in front of you, you went to go find Sasuke despite not having a clue where he was! Naruto! You did everything on your own and accomplished nothing! Sasuke! You saw your teammates as useless and left them to fend for themselves. You even ignored Kazeneko when she tried to join up with you! And Kazeneko!" he turned to the recently awakened girl, "I don't really know what you did, but as a ninja who has already been a genin once, you could have told them the point of this exercise. Why didn't you?"

Kazeneko looked at them with something in her eyes, anger perhaps, and said, "I shouldn't have to tell them something that basic." Naruto started yelling, "know what? What do you mean?" Kazeneko sighed, "because you three didn't realize that you are, normally, put into a THREE MEMBER TEAM for a very simple reason." Sakura, being the bright one, got it, "you mean, the point of this exercise was teamwork?" Kakashi nodded. "But you only have two bells, that means that two of us would be left out even if we worked together," Sakura protested. Kakashi nodded again, "that is the point. I thought you would see past that and work together anyways, but I was wrong."

Kakashi walked behind Naruto and Kazeneko, to a stone monument. "What is that, sensei?" Sakura asked. "This is where the names of many heroes are inscribed," Kakashi said. Naruto started getting excited, "that is so cool. I have a new goal; I'm going to have my name carved on there!" Sakura ignored Naruto, knowing something was off, other than Kakashi's haircut. "What did they do?" she asked. "Every ninja whose name is carved on this stone died during a mission," he said, making everyone grow solemn, "my friend's names are here as well." He turned to them, "I've decided to give you another chance. Eat and recover your stamina, but don't give any to Naruto. He is being punished for trying to eat on his own." he vanished in a puff of smoke.

Grumble. Grumble.

"Heh," Naruto smirked, "this is nothing, nothing!" Grumble. He crumpled slightly from hunger. Sasuke looked around quickly, then held his lunch to Naruto, "take it." Naruto looked at the food, "I don't need it!" Sasuke turned to him, "take it! We are going to need you at full strength for this afternoon. Besides, Kakashi isn't here right now." Sakura looked at her food, then also held hers to Naruto, "I'm on a diet right now, so I don't want it," she said. When he didn't take it, she turned to him, "Why aren't you eating?" she snapped. "Ehehehehe, I'm kinda tied up at the moment," Naruto chuckled nervously, "I got an idea; feed me Sakura-chan!" Sakura paled slightly, but picked a piece of food with her chopsticks and held it up to his happily smiling mouth. _'If only it were Sasuke-kun I were feeding,'_ she thought.

"YOU!" Everyone jumped to see Kakashi appear in a thick cloud of black smoke. He performed some rapid hand seals, probably some very dangerous jutsu. Everyone cringed in fear. "all pass!" a happy sounding Kakashi said. They looked to see his one exposed eye closed in a...happy way and they swore he was smiling under the mask. _'All I did was run around and faint, did that count for something?'_ Sakura thought. "How did we pass?" Sasuke asked. "A ninja is expected to follow the rules, disobeying them makes you scum," he said, "but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum All the other recruits listened to every word I said to the letter, you didn't and tried to help Naruto. That is why you all passed, you worked as a team. Congratulations, Team 7 genin." Everyone was happy. Even Sasuke had a smirk-like grin, or was it a grin-like smirk? "Come on," Kakashi said, "I'll treat you guys to lunch." He walked away and everyone got up and followed him.

...

After about five minutes, Naruto started yelling. "I knew this would happen! You guys forgot to untie me! Ramen! Ramen!" he yelled, hoping they would hear him. They didn't and he remained tied to the post.

_[An hour later...]_

Naruto was cursing his luck. They hadn't realized the loudest member of their team wasn't there. How was that possible? His mind was a mixing boil of the ramen he was missing and Sasuke hitting on Sakura during lunch, not that it would ever happen. Sasuke hitting on Sakura was as likely as him being a Hokage's child. His thoughts were disrupted by a sudden noise.

GROOOOAAAR!

Naruto looked to his right in shock, seeing Kazeneko still tied there as well. _'I forgot about her as well,'_ Naruto thought, feeling quite bad. "Do you keep a lion in there or something?" Naruto asked. Kazeneko nodded weakly, "he wants meat..." Naruto realized that Kazeneko hadn't been offered any food even though Kakashi had never said anything about the others not feeding her. _'That...has to suck. She had to watch as Sakura-chan almost fed me,'_ Naruto thought. Another stomach roar rang out.

"How long do we have to stay here?" Kazeneko asked in a weak voice.

"Huh?"

"Aren't we being punished?" Kazeneko asked.

"No," Naruto said, "why would you think that?"

Kazeneko frowned, "no reason. So we can go?" Naruto nodded and heard a snap as Kazeneko's ropes fell off. She then cut Naruto free with a kunai from her thigh belt. "Thanks," Naruto said while beaming. Another stomach roar and Kazeneko was on the ground, clutching her stomach. "Hehe, let's go to Ichiraku!" Naruto said as he helped the small girl onto her feet.

Anyone who peeked into the Ichiraku Ramen, like Hyūga Hinata did, would see an odd sight. That prankster was sitting and eating with someone other than Iruka or the Hokage. At first they were quiet, but the waitress there got them talking. After a while, the conversation warmed up and the two spoke easier. Soon enough, the two were bantering back and forth as if they had been friends for years. The owner of Ichiraku was happy to see that his favourite customer had a friend, he was also happy that the two had eaten six bowls each and showed no sign of slowing down, though he wondered where the petite girl kept the ramen she was scarfing down.

"Do you have anyone you like?" Naruto asked. This caught Ayame's attention, she liked these kind of things every once in a while. She already knew Naruto was head over heels in love with Haruno Sakura, now she might find out if his rough looking teammate liked someone as well. _'It would be scandalous, but funny, if she also liked Sakura,'_ she thought mischievously. Kazeneko looked down at her seventh bowl for a moment, "I had a crush, but it turned out that I saw them as family rather than a lover," she chuckled nervously. Naruto laughed a bit, "at least it sounds like you're close to that person, I'll probably never be anything with Sakura-chan," he said openly.

Kazeneko looked over at Naruto, surprise on her face and chopsticks in her mouth. "You like her?" Kazeneko asked, then shook her head, "well, it's none of my business really, but I wish you luck in getting through that 'Sasuke-kun3' barrier." Naruto smiled a little, cheered up by the tiny ninja's well wishing. "At least you don't have a mile long silver spoon jammed up your ass like that Uchiha brat," Kazeneko muttered, well, more like growled, as her eyes narrowed in anger. That got Naruto laughing.

Naruto took a good look at his teammate. It had taken Naruto five minutes to convince his teammate to stop trying to hide her face behind her scarf. Naruto wondered why she was embarrassed about her face. The only thing different about Kazeneko's face was she had three scratch-like scars, very dark blue in colour, on the left side of her face going from somewhere under her bandages up to about two inches below the outside corner of her eye. Naruto had to admit that Kazeneko was kinda cute. Little sister cute, not Sakura-chan cute. He would remain faithful! Kazeneko kinda reminded him of Kiba and the Inuzuka clan members with her wild hair and the scratch marks on her face. She also struck him as being kinda wild too.

"How old are you Kazeneko?" Naruto asked, suddenly curious. Kazeneko looked over again, "fifteen going on sixteen." Naruto whistled, figuring she was eleven. Naruto already knew he was a year older than Sakura and Sasuke, thanks to failing the half year academy test two times. Kazeneko spoke up again, "call me Yue, my friends call me that" Naruto smiled and they returned to their meal.

_[Next morning at Team 7's meeting place, a small bridge...]_

"Sorry Naruto, Kazeneko!" Sakura said as she bowed in front of her two teammates. Sasuke stood off to the side, not really caring. Kakashi was late, as it would always be. Naruto smiled, accepting the apology right away. Sakura decided to look to see if Kazeneko had accepted and stopped. The petite ninja had stopped hiking her scarf up to cover her face.

"If you are truly sorry about forgetting about us last night to go eat," she said from her sitting position, making Sakura feel a kunai of guilt strike her back, "then call me Yue from now on."

Sakura looked at her in shock, then said, "alright then Ka- Yue." Sasuke spoke up,

"Kakashi is late. Naruto, Sakura, Yue, let's see if we can find a mission without him."

Yue stood up and growled, "you keep calling me Kazeneko, Uchiha." Sasuke shot a look at her, then huffed and walked away. The rest followed, though Yue took to the roofs as soon as she could.

_[Two hours later...]_

Kakashi was dumbstruck. "Did I get here first?"

_**!Omake!**_

**Yue's Kawarimi?**

Naruto and Yue had just finished up their ramen and Naruto was thinking of how to split what was going to be a large bill. _'I think we should split it 50/50,'_ he thought. "Hey Yue," he said.

"Hmm?" the girl hummed.

"I think we should split the bill in half, what do you think?" he asked.

"Nya~"

"Nya?" Naruto mimicked and looked at his new friend, only to see a tabby kitten sitting where Yue had been a moment before. He quickly looked around and didn't see the girl anywhere. The cat meowed again before jumping down and running into an alley.

"Here's the bill, Naruto-kun," Ayame said as she handed the bill to him, "it is very gentlemanly of you to pay for the girl without a second thought. Sakura-chan will be very happy with you later on."

Naruto blushed only to go pale and faint when he looked at the bill. Later, he was seen crying over an empty frog wallet.

**!Review responses!**

Blackwolf36: Stupid things happening, but more than half of what Naruto does in Part I is stupid. Guess I'll have to change the Wave arc...

dbzgtfan2004: Another NaruSaku supporter. I do believe the two idiots belong together too. Sasuke belongs in a really deep hole. Sadly, he will not be killed in this fic.

Thedarkpokemaster: I don't really know how to respond to this one other than to keep posting.

All the others: Anonymous reviews are now open, so feel free to drop a line. Stupid reviews such as "that's not how that happened." or "U suxxors! lololololol!" will be deleted with extreme prejudice.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: First big mission, Demon Brothers

-Additional Primer-

"_I can't believe I forgot radio chatter. Over!"_

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto.**

"_Feral here. Back up trap is set and ready to spring. Over,"_ Yue reported.

"_This is Raven. I'm ready. Over."_ Sasuke sent in.

"_Blossom reporting. I'm in position. Over."_ Sakura whispered.

...

"_I'm all set for this. Over."_ Naruto said.

"_Naruto... You're slow and you forgot your codename again! Over!"_ Kakashi hissed through his mic.

Sakura was stationed in some bushes, ready to slip out at a moment's notice. Sasuke was in a tree and waiting to swoop down on their unsuspecting prey. Due to this place becoming a bottleneck if their target escaped, Yue had set up a 'sling shot' wire trap that would throw the target back when they hit it. Naruto was hiding in the shadows of a tree and bushes. Kakashi was in a tree with a perfect view of the area, allowing him to see how his team performed on this mission.

A rustling in the brush caught everyone's attention and they fell silent. A figure slid into the area, looking around furtively. When in the dead center of the clearing, the genin moved in. Naruto caught their prey.

"NYAAA!" the cat shrieked as it clawed at the air. Naruto stumbled over, allowing the cat to get access to his face, which it tried to reduce to mince meat. "OW!" Naruto gasped as the cat jumped out of his hands and tried to run away.

Sasuke dropped in front of the cat and caught it effortlessly, keeping it away from his body. The dark haired boy glanced at Naruto, smirked and turned away.

Kakashi walked out of the brush. "Is that our target? Can you confirm it?"

Sasuke put the cat in the jōnin's arms. "The ribbon is there, so it is Mr. Kibbles." It was a good thing he handed the cat over to Kakashi because Sakura started praising him on his capture.

Yue walked into the clearing, allowing the small shackle's simple mechanism retract the last of the wire that was stored inside it. When it was finished, she placed the somewhat hidden tool in a pocket for later use.

"Let's return Mr. Kibbles so we can get another mission," Kakashi said as he started towards the tower, his team following behind him.

_[Hokage's office...]_

The poor cat was seemingly begging for their help as the fire daimyo's wife tried to squeeze it to death. Team 7 now knew why retrieving the cat was the most frequently posted mission in Konoha. It was a small wonder it was still alive. Cat must know ninjutsu or something.

Once the room was clear of civilians, Naruto shouted, "give us a real mission!" The rest of team 7 moved a small distance away to preserve their hearing, but Sasuke mentally agreed with him. "Naruto," Yue sighed, "D-rank missions are standard fair for fresh genin like you three."

Naruto looked confused, "What is with the 'D-rank' thing?"

Kakashi took over the explanation, "missions are divided into ranks. D is for new genin, C is for experienced genin or chūnin, B is for chūnin, A-rank is for jōnin or higher ranking ninja, S-rank are for the Kage and ANBU forces. You guys aren't skilled enough for anything other than D rank missions."

Naruto frowned, "but we're strong, Yue used to be at least a chūnin and we have you as well, Kakashi-sensei. We can handle a harder mission." Sakura then added, "let's at least hope that sensei is on time to help us if we ever get in trouble."

The Hokage was watching Yue, wondering how she would react to Naruto's statement. "Naruto, for all you know, I was a genin before my arrest," she tried. "No way!" Naruto shouted, "you're strong and you keep saying 'genin like you three,' meaning you were at least a chūnin before." Yue was caught off guard by Naruto's insight and was trying to find the right words to drive him off course. Currently she had the key words: Sakura, ramen and date. How to combine them though...

Before either could continue, an older man wearing a black sleeveless shirt with a towel around his neck walked, well more like stumbled in. "Ah, Tazuna," the Hokage said. "Have you found anyone yet?" Tazuna asked. The Hokage shook his head. Kakashi thought for a moment, then asked, "found anyone for what?" The Hokage was about to say something when Tazuna spoke first, "I need some ninja to escort me to the land of Waves."

The Hokage thought hard for a moment, then turned to team 7. "You wanted a more challenging mission, you got it. Team 7 will escort Tazuna to the land of Waves and guard him until he finishes construction of his bridge." the Hokage said, "you will leave at 3pm today. Meet at the front gate. Dismissed." Team 7 and Tazuna left the room, but Yue stayed with the Hokage.

"You know they aren't ready for this," Yue warned, her tone completely different from before. It was icy and even. A tone he knew well. The Hokage looked at her quizzically, "is this Kazeneko Yue, probationary genin, friend of Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura? Or is it Kazeneko Yue the Tokubetsu Jōnin that I am speaking to?" Her eyes narrowed as she took a slight step back. "You can't fear your past, it can't harm you anymore." the Hokage said, then he smiled warmly, "maybe you should contact your remaining teammate and let her know you are still alive. She thinks that both of her teammates are dead."

Yue turned away and put a hand to her bandaged neck, "she would prefer it if that were true." The small ninja walked out of the room.

The Hokage sighed as he adjusted his Hokage hat, _'and I thought Naruto and Sasuke were the __troublesome ones in team 7... I'm starting to sound like a Nara.'_

_[Noon at the village gates...]_

"Naruto! Calm down!" Sakura scolded. Naruto was beaming while looking out the village gates and practically bouncing. "But I've never been outside the village before!" Naruto exclaimed. Sasuke sighed. "Hey, hey! What's it like outside Yue?" Naruto asked. "No need to answer you Naruto. You will see soon enough on your own," Yue looked beyond Konoha's gates as well with a frown, "besides, everyone sees the world differently. The way I see it may be very different from how you might see it."

Kakashi placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, making the boy jump almost two feet into the air. "It's time to go," he said as Tazuna joined the group.

_[Day 2]_

Sakura started talking with their client to pass the time. "Tazuna-san. Why do you have to be escorted to the land of Waves?" she asked. "I'm a **super** bridge builder and some people will not like what I am doing, so I need some **super** protection." the older man said. Izzy popped up, 'not another one!' Naruto got excited, "**super** protection? That is what I am. Uzumaki Naruto, future **super** Hokage, then everyone will acknowledge and respect me!" Tazuna started laughing, hard. "You, a Hokage," he managed, "kid, even if you became the greatest Hokage ever, I would never care." Naruto was about to start yelling when Tazuna spoke again, "it is always the small, stupid ones who make up for a lack of talent with a massive mouth." Naruto started looking around, "who is the small, stupid one?" His teammates looked at him. It took Naruto a few moments to realize he had to tilt his head back slightly to look at any of his fellow genin's eyes, Yue was excluded since she hadn't spoken yet. "I'LL KILL YOU!" Naruto yelled as he struggled to escape Kakashi's hold on his jacket's collar. "What is the point of killing the person you are supposed to protect?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto finally calmed down, but was still fuming somewhat as they continued on down the path. They walked past a puddle, only Kakashi and Yue noticed it. They walked by it without disturbing the painfully obvious ninjutsu.

Two men wearing a heavy, clawed gauntlet on opposing arms and what appeared to be gas masks on their faces rose out of the puddle, their gauntlets linked with a razor chain. The one with the gauntlet on his right hand's first action was to backhand Yue in the side of her face with the his claw. With Yue down, the same man swung his arm, allowing his partner to jump to the other side of Kakashi. In mid air, his partner swung the chain so it was looped around Kakashi. Just when the genin realized what was going on, the assassins pulled their arms and tore Kakashi apart with the chain as the one with the single horned headband said, "one down." Sakura screamed at the sight.

When the pieces of Kakashi hit the floor, Naruto was flanked by the two ninjas. "Two down," two horn said. Before they could cut Naruto down, Sasuke halted their claws with his legs, then punched the two assassins away from Naruto. The Uchiha then threw a shuriken and kunai to jam the chain up on a tree. The two ninja disconnected the chain and one bolted for Sakura and Tazuna while the other returned to attacking Naruto. A few moments before striking their target, an arm was wrapped around one's neck, stopping him.

The other one, who was attacking Naruto, was struck in the spot over his heart when Yue jabbed her sheathed sword into his chest, forcing electricity into his system. He fell to the ground, convulsing as his muscles tried to make sense of the erratic messages her chakra infused lightning told them. "Sunder Tappu," Yue muttered as she replaced her sheathed weapon on its belt.

Sakura looked to where her 'dismembered' sensei was, only to see sliced up wood. _'He used a kawarimi to trick them,'_ she thought. She thought that maybe Yue had done so as well, but two shallow cuts on her cheek proved otherwise. The small girl looked at the attacking ninja's headband, then quickly took out some kind of liquid in a vial and dripped some into the cuts, producing some pale smoke and a hissing noise. She wiped it and the blood away and the cuts were gone. _'What is that stuff?'_ Sakura thought, not knowing of any medicine with such rapid healing properties.

"Sorry about that Naruto," Kakashi said to the slightly quivering form of said ninja.

Naruto looked at Sasuke, shocked at his teammate's actions. _'He acted like this wasn't his first battle. He was able to move while I shook on the ground like some kind of idiot,'_ Naruto thought. He went through the memories of his personal training and wondered if he had wasted all that time.

To throw some salt on the injury, the 'great' Uchiha spoke. "What's wrong dead last? Fear get to you, scaredy cat?" Sasuke questioned with a cold smirk. Naruto's anger battled his sense of inferiority.

"Naruto," Yue said, catching the blonde's attention, "those blades were poisoned." Naruto blinked at the older kunoichi, who pointed at Naruto's left hand. Naruto looked and saw a small wound on the back of his hand.

"Hmmm," Kakashi hummed while tying up the two ninja, "we are going to have to go back to get your hand treated."

"Good work Naruto," Sakura sighed, "our first real mission and we have to give it up now because you froze up."

Sasuke didn't say anything, merely smirked at the shorter boy. Yue glared at the two genin, her grip on her sword's handle tightening.

_'Why is it always me?'_ Naruto thought angrily, _'no matter how hard I try, I keep screwing up!'_ He angrily looked at the wound, then made his decision. He opened up his pouch, drew one of his kunai and stabbed it into the wound on the back of his hand, draining it of poisoned blood.

His teammates, sensei and client all gaped at his actions.

There and then, Naruto made a vow to never freeze up again, he vowed it on the pain in his hand.

"Uh, Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"What?" Naruto growled angrily.

"It's good and all that you purged the poison," Kakashi said, "but now you might just bleed to death."

Naruto started freaking out and yanked the knife free from his hand. Kakashi managed to grab his arm and stopped the small boy from pumping too much blood out of the wound. He pulled out some bandages and started to wrap the wound. _'Hmm?'_ he thought as he watched the wound start sealing itself, _'that must be the Kyūbi's power at work.'_

"Uh, Sensei," Naruto said, seriously worried, "is something wrong?"

"Huh? Oh no, just wondering if we can get moving right away with your wound," Kakashi lied, covering his surprise at Naruto's healing rate. He finished bandaging the genin's hand.

"How did you know we were there?" one of the demon brothers asked.

"Simple, it is sunny today and hasn't rained in a while," Kakashi said, "a puddle stands out quite a bit." He hit both ninja, knocking them out. "Now Tazuna-san, care to explain why ninja are hunting you? I thought this was a D rank mission..."

Tazuna audibly gulped.

_[A few days later...]_

The three genin, their sensei, probationary genin, client and a boat driver were on a small boat going into Wave. Kakashi and Tazuna had spoken a while back and he told them the truth about who was after him. Gato, a man who ran a massive shipping company, was trying to kill Tazuna because the bridge he was building threatened Gato's plans. The bridge would remove the country's reliance on Gato's shipping, effectively kicking him out of the land of Waves. Kakashi stated that the mission was at least a high B-rank mission, possibly higher if the foes were even stronger.

Using a motor boat, that was being rowed by the owner, they passed through a tunnel and came into a more open area, trees lining the river. This path was best since it gave them more cover from anyone that Gato may have on watch. Naruto got excited at seeing the place, it was all fairly new to him. The boat driver dropped them off and left quickly, leaving the ninja and their employer behind.

"Hurry and get me home safely," Tazuna commanded lightly.

"Yes," Kakashi sighed. _'Next time we get attacked it won't be chūnin, but a jōnin like me,'_ Kakashi thought with a dull look on his face.

Naruto glared at Sasuke briefly and then started acting weirder than usual, if that was possible. He started looking around a lot, then randomly threw a shuriken into the bushes with a shout of, "there!"

Nothing happened.

"Just a rat," Naruto said as he wiped away imaginary sweat.

"Stop trying to act cool!" Sakura yelled.

"Naruto, stop using shuriken like that...it's dangerous," Kakashi warned.

"Hey midget! Stop acting like a moron!" Tazuna yelled.

The words fell on deaf ears as Naruto went back to scanning for foes.

Kakashi felt something while Yue heard a noise. Naruto, whether by instinct or dumb luck, flung a kunai (he DID listen...sort of) with a spirited "there!" again, right where the jōnin and demoted kunoichi had thought the disturbance was.

"We said stop!" Sakura yelled as she punched Naruto in the back of his head. "Somebody is after us!" Naruto protested. "Yeah right," Sakura snapped, "the men with nets aren't here for you yet, baka!"

Kakashi, Yue and Sakura, who had just finished yelling at Naruto, went over to see what was there. A small white rabbit was shaking against the tree, Naruto's kunai embedded in the tree between its parted ears. Poor thing looked like it lost a few months of its life to fear.

Sakura went back to lecturing Naruto while he tried to calm the poor rabbit down by apologizing to it and petting it. Counter productive since Sakura was scaring it further with her tirade. Kakashi was thinking though. _'This is a snow rabbit...but it's pure white. They change color in spring because of increased sunlight, but this one didn't,'_ the jōnin thought, _'someone must have kept it in a cage for kawarimi. Then that means the next attack is here. Now.'_

In the trees, Zabuza watched Kakashi and Yue, not shocked too much at their presence. He had expected as much from what Haku had told him. Though Yue was different, her hair and eyes were duller than he had heard. _'It doesn't matter, Sharingan Kakashi is the only real threat,'_ Zabuza thought as he initiated his attack.

Kakashi heard it a few moments after Yue did; the sound of a branch creaking from a jump and the whistling as a blade sailed through the air. "Get down!" Kakashi yelled as the large sword flew at them. Sasuke pulled Tazuna down and out of the way while Sakura tackled Naruto to the ground. Kakashi ducked under it while Yue rolled out of the way, drawing her sword in mid roll. The large blade imbedded itself in a tree. The blade hadn't even settled and a man appeared upon it.

The Konoha ninja stood up and faced against the ninja who had just appeared. Naruto was thinking of showing up Sasuke and was ready this time.

"If it isn't the Hidden Mist's missing-nin, Momochi Zabuza," Kakashi said. Naruto moved to spring forward, but Kakashi's hand halted him. "Get back. This guy is on a whole different level from the other two," Kakashi said. He put his hand on his tilted forehead protector. "It will be dangerous if I don't use this," Kakashi said as he grabbed his tilted forehead protector.

OMAKE!

**Worthless Gesture?**

Once Naruto's hand was bandaged up, the group continued on. Yue had gone somewhere, but soon caught up. She approached Naruto as the group continued on and tugged at his sleeve. "Naruto..."

"What is it?" he asked. The small girl held up a vial of a greenish liquid for him. "What...is that?"

"Antidote for the poison used by most Kiri-nin..." the girl mumbled.

Naruto's jaw dropped. Other than that vow, what he had done was useless. Then again, Yue might not have had-

"I have some too" Kakashi said as he pulled out a vial of the same liquid.

-some of the antidote for the poison...

Naruto wondered if that was standard with all Jōnin vests or was it their preparation for missions.

...Did the vests come in orange?

**A/N~**

**I know the cat was originally called Tora, but I decided to rename it Mr. Kibbles. Tora (Tiger) sounds cool and tough, Mr. Kibbles sounds cute and harmless. Mr. Kibbles is not harmless**

**-Review responses-**

**Sky Zephyrus:** I'm purposely making Yue a background character right now. She steadily gets more uh, letter time, especially around the exams. Her back story gets partially revealed a bit at a time, with the exams revealing even more. Some light NaruSaku will start around exams, just like everything else.

Oh yeah, I truly believe Naruto should just get himself a nice harem. He deserves Sakura, Ino and Hinata in my opinion. Tayuya isn't bad either. Maybe Konan and a few others too... This is all my personal opinion though.

**Kidloco:** There are similarities between Yue and all the members of team 7. These will be revealed as time goes along. She does act like an older (but shorter) sister to Naruto and Sakura, a somewhat stern older sister. Can't say too much without giving it away.

**Thedarkpokemaster:** Yue does help "lift the scales" from Sakura's eyes a little faster so she can see how Sasuke really is. Sakura will also realize Naruto is quite strong and dependable long before he leaves for his training trip. Her feelings when he returns...Hmm. I'm not telling you anything yet. I can tell you that Sasuke's escape and the promise will be different and Naruto's return won't be exactly the same.

**9-tailed reaper:** Sasuke won't die, but I am going to make him a little worse than in canon. His whole problem was Naruto being better than him while Sasuke believed that he was superior because he is an Uchiha. Yue will also be stronger than Sasuke, which will make his attitude worse. Trust me, by the end of part I, people will be begging me to slaughter the damn jutsu thief.

(Also, he WILL be put in his place, several times. Basically, Yue is going to beat the living shit out of the little queer later.)

About Yue not leaving any money behind, she had no money since she had just gotten out of prison. (the big house always takes a big cut) Don't worry, she will never leave Naruto high and dry again.

**Johnjohn:** Other than Yue appearing, the Narutoverse has changed very little. All I did was add a clan, added a couple OCs, added a bloodline limit and messed around with past events slightly. Naruto will be smarter and stronger, but not until the exams. Sakura and, to a lesser extent, Ino will be stronger as well.

If you want a stronger, smarter Naruto from the offset, then wait until I start releasing _The Greatest_**.** Its another fic I'm actively writing, in addition to about four others and this one. It is a NaruOCSakuIno fic. I won't release any of it til I've gotten to the exams though, so be patient. I was actually planning on releasing _Necessary Darkness_ next. It is a mirror fic to this one since it also contains Yue, but she is very different from this story's version.

**-Jutsu Index-**

**Sunder Tappu** [Thunder Tap] – D-rank raiton. By forcing a raiton directly into their opponent, a shinobi is capable of reducing their foe's movements to spasms and twitches for a short while. Only works once per opponent.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Don't own anything other than Yue and her personal jutsu.**

Chapter 4: Demon of Mist, Zabuza

The man standing on the sword had short hair and bandages wrapped around the lower part of his face. He wore pants, no shirt and arm warmers. He glared down at the Konoha ninja and his target. "You are Sharingan Kakashi," Zabuza said, "sorry, but the old man is mine."

"Surround Tazuna and protect him," Kakashi ordered, "don't attempt to enter the fight. That is your mission." He then pulled up the forehead protector up, "Zabuza..fight me," he stated like a command. His left eye was revealed, being red with what appeared to be a ring of hardened color with three tomoe on it. A scar went up under his forehead protector and down under his mask.

"I already get to see the infamous Sharingan," Zabuza said, "I'm honored."

"What is a Sharingan?" Naruto asked.

"It's a dōjutsu, an ability present in one's eyes. It allows you to read and defeat any taijutsu or genjutsu. That isn't the only power it has though..." Sasuke explained.

"That's right," Zabuza said, "the scariest thing is that it lets you steal your opponent's jutsu once you've seen them." He then looked up briefly, "when I was still a part of Kiri's ANBU, My bingo book held information on various famous ninja around the world, you included," he said as he looked at Yue, then then turned his gaze to Kakashi, "the man who had copied a thousand jutsu, Copy Ninja Kakashi."

Sakura was thinking of how so many great people had been springing up in front of her lately. Naruto was more vocal with his thoughts. _'What's going on?'_ Sasuke thought, _'only a few members of the Uchiha clan have the Sharingan...could he be one too? Aren't me and my brother the last of them though?'_

"Enough talk. I have to kill that old man," Zabuza said as he and the large sword vanished. He reappeared on the water, standing on it. "It seems I have to kill you first though, Kakashi," he said. He held one hand up and one before his face, both held in a half ram seal.

_'He is using a high level jutsu,'_ Kakashi thought. His students were marvelling at how the swordsman stood on the water. **"Kirigakure no Jutsu,"** Zabuza said as a thick mist enveloped the area.

"He'll come after me first. He is an expert on silent killing. You won't notice till you're already dead... I can't use the Sharingan perfectly so be on guard," Kakashi warned.

The mist thickened and Zabuza's voice seemed to come from everywhere. "Eight targets...liver, lungs, spine, clavicle vein, jugular, brain, kidneys, heart...Which one should I go after?'

Nothing seemed to happen. Kakashi suddenly held up a hand in half ram, breifly startling the others. Sasuke started panicking. _'It feels like I'll be killed if I move! This would drive anyone insane. Jōnin fighting jōnin...it feels like my heart is being crushed. I'd rather die than have to feel this,'_ he thought as he shook with fear. He started turning his kunai onto himself.

"Sasuke...Don't worry," Kakashi said, "I will protect you guys even if it kills me. I won't let my comrades die again." He turned around for the last part and everyone swore that he was smiling happily.

"We'll see about that!" Zabuza said as he appeared behind the genin. He swung his sword while Kakashi flew forward and knocked his team away with light strikes. He also delivered a blow to Zabuza, a stab to the stomach. Zabuza stood impaled on Kakashi's kunai, bleeding water, as another appeared behind Kakashi, ready to strike.

"Sensei! Behind you!" Naruto yelled as he pointed at the ambush.

Kakashi noticed a moment after the clone he had stabbed broke into water. The blade cut him in two, but he too broke into water. _'He copied my mizu bunshin in the mist?'_ Zabuza thought. Before he could react, a kunai was placed at his throat and Kakashi said, "don't move! It's over!"

Zabuza laughed. "It's over? You don't get it. Your monkey level imitations could never defeat me. You made your clone say that line to attract my attention. You then stayed in the mist and waited for the right opportunity to attack. Nice plan, but..." Another Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi, "I'm not that easy," he said as the clone Kakashi had caught broke apart. Zabuza swung his sword and missed Kakashi when he ducked. Zabuza used his sword's weight and slammed it into the ground, delivering a fast kick with the momentum, sending Kakashi flying away. He went to pursue his enemy, but stopped because Yue flung her sword at his face, which Zabuza easily caught and threw away, as Kakashi sailed into the water. "Useless," Zabuza spat as Kakashi fell into the water.

Kakashi pulled himself up and noticed that the water was incredibly heavy. He realized a moment too late that Zabuza appeared behind him and performed some seals. **"Suirō no Jutsu,"** Zabuza said as the water rose up and formed an orb around Kakashi. Zabuza put one hand into the orb. "You tried to escape into the water, big mistake. Now you are trapped in my inescapable prison."

Zabuza then made a simple hand seal, "now we can finish things later, Kakashi. First, the brats...**Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu."** A Zabuza was formed from the water in front of him and it walked onto the land. "You think that wearing those forehead protectors make you a ninja? A real ninja is someone who has survived many glimpses of death's doors." He then noticed Yue's sword. He stomped on it, snapping the blade off the handle. "When you're good enough to be listed in my book, only then can call yourself a true ninja. You are just _playing_ ninja," he said as he vanished. Naruto was shocked at the sudden disappearance, but got kicked back a moment later, his headband coming off from the impact.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled as Naruto rolled up to them and bunshin Zabuza stomped on the fallen headband.

"Just brats," the real Zabuza mumbled.

"Take Tazuna and run! You can't beat him as long as I am in this prison!" Kakashi yelled, "water clones can't travel too far from the real body! Just run away!"

Naruto started to panic as Sasuke had earlier, but getting up to run caused pain to shoot through his still injured hand. It reminded him of everything, his vow, Iruka, everything that had led up to this. Naruto rushed the Zabuza clone.

"DON'T!" Kakashi yelled.

"Naruto! What are you thinking?" Sakura yelled.

Naruto was knocked back again, this time skidding almost all the way back to his teammates. "What were you hoping to do by attack him alone!" Sakura yelled, "We are genin, we don't stand a chance against him!"

Naruto started to get up and they noticed the headband in his hand. He stood up. "Hey you eye browless freak...Put this in your handbook; the man who will become Hokage, Leaf ninja Uzumaki Naruto!" he announced as he tied his headband back on. "Hey Sasuke!"

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"I've got a plan," Naruto said.

_'A plan from you?'_ Sasuke thought, then said, "you and teamwork?'

_'Why is Naruto so cool all of a sudden?'_ Sakura thought with a slight blush, _'though he still isn't as cool as Sasuke-kun.'_

"Let's do this!" Naruto said, wiping the blood from his mouth.

"Nothing but arrogance," bunshin Zabuza said, "do you think you stand a chance?"

"Why aren't you running away?" Kakashi yelled, "our duty is to protect Tazuna! This fight was lost when I was captured! Now run away!"

Naruto and the others looked back at the old man. "Well...I am responsible for all this and I don't think I have the right to tell you to stop to keep me alive," the old man smiled, "fight to your heart's content."

"I'll protect Tazuna," Yue said as she stepped before the older man and drew three kunai for each hand.

"But you fighting alone is-" Sakura started.

"**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu,"** Yue growled as she produced five clones, all armed the same way as her. "Who said I was alone?" they asked as one.

"Guess we don't have to worry about our client," Sasuke said.

"You ready?" Naruto challenged.

Bunshin Zabuza started laughing. "You idiots are never going to grow up and stop playing ninja, are you?"

"What?" Naruto yelled.

"When I was your age I had already had soooo much blood on my hands," bushin Zabuza said. This startled the genin and their client.

"Zabuza, the devil of the Mist," Kakashi said. Both Zabuza smiled knowingly, "you know of the old 'graduation exam' for the Hidden Mist Village?"

"What exam?" Naruto asked.

"A fight to the death between students," bunshin Zabuza said, "friends, siblings and allies are sent into an arena are made to fight till one loses their life."

"Disgusting," Sakura whispered.

"I heard the exam had to change ten years ago...Why was that?" Yue asked.

"Change? What happened ten years ago?" Sakura asked.

"A devil appeared and..." Kakashi stopped.

"What did the 'devil' do?" Sakura asked again, disgusted by the ritual.

"Without the slightest shred of humanity, a boy yet to enter the academy killed over a hundred trained students on his own," Kakashi said grimly.

"That was the most fun I ever had," Zabuza said with a strange smile on his face and a demented look in his eyes. Naruto and Sasuke flinched from the look. Sasuke realized a moment too late that bunshin Zabuza was in front of him. He was knocked back with an elbow blow, then he was slammed into the ground by the bunshin's fist. Sasuke instantly spat up blood from the harsh blow.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yelled.

"Die," the bunshin commanded as it placed a foot on Sasuke's chest, intent on crushing his heart.

"**Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"** Naruto yelled as he produced at least twenty clones and each drew a kunai. "Shadow clones...and lots of them," bunshin Zabuza mused.

"Here we come!" Naruto announced as all the bunshin jumped at bunshin Zabuza and forced him away from Sasuke, then piled on top of him, kunai pointed towards the water clone. Bunshin Zabuza had grabbed his sword, then he swung his blade around, cutting the clones down and knocking the real Naruto away.

_'Useless,'_ Tazuna thought, _'you kids can't beat him.'_

Naruto dug into his bag and pulled out a large weapon, a shuriken. "Sasuke!" Naruto yelled as he tossed the weapon when he slid by Sasuke.

Sasuke caught the shuriken and his eyes widened in realization. _'That's your plan! You never told me dobe...good plan though.'_ Sasuke rolled away to gain some distance from bunshin Zabuza. He stood up and opened the massive shuriken. "Fūma shuriken," Sasuke said, then he jumped up.

"Even a giant shuriken won't work on me," bunshin Zabuza said as he got ready to deflect the shuriken with his sword. Sasuke threw the shuriken. Bunshin Zabuza was surprised when the shuriken flew by him harmlessly. _'Did fear mind take his mind?'_ he thought, then realized the boy's aim. "So you are aiming for the real me..." the real Zabuza said, "too bad it isn't enough!" He caught the shuriken. He noticed moment later that another was there in the 'shadow' of the first one, aiming for his legs. "A second shuriken!"

_'That is __Kage Shuriken no Jutsu__...'_ Kakashi thought, stunned at the plan Naruto had come up with.

"Still not enough," Zabuza said as he jumped over the second one. Sasuke smirked.

The shuriken burst into smoke and revealed Naruto, kunai in hand. Everyone, except Sasuke, expressed different levels of shock.

**A/N~**

**...I got nothing?**

**-Review Responses-**

**thedarkpokemaster:** Who doesn't hate Sasuke other than those poor people who believe that Sasuke will return, magically become a nice person and marry Sakura or Ino, leaving Naruto and Hinata together? I sure as hell don't. Naruto and Hinata don't mix (unless people change things in their fics) since both have low self-esteem and virtually no self-confidence at first. They have virtually nothing in common and the divide between them just keeps growing as time goes along, just like the gap between Sasuke and all the females in the series.

Hell, Naruto and Anko go together better than Naruto and Hinata.

**Sky Zephyrus:** I was honestly surprised at first when I read your review. Most people dislike OCs that are loud and proud, saying it drowns out all the other characters. Anyways, next chapter starts some of the deviations you oh so desire.

**9-tailed reaper:** From the Forest of Death onward, you will love this fic since it contains Sasuke and Uchiha hate, mostly from Yue. Her reason are mixed, half because of the Uchiha and half because of herself.

**DarkBringer:** Sakura will know more about Sasuke and his flaws before the end of the exams. Ino will know how cold and heartless Sasuke is too, but the price for her to realize this will be high. There will actually be no, I repeat, **no Sasuke fan girls** by the end of Part I.

Thanks for the heads up on the flamers. As for those who don't like two girls making out and such, I wonder if they are gay themselves sometimes. I already knew about Sasuke Rules you all, since he flames all my favourite stories. Sasuke deserves a pike up his ass (which color matches perfectly with the stick and spoon that are already up there) rather than a girlfriend.

Hehehe. Yeah, I have a Naruko/Ino/Sakura fic being written right now. I'm actually going to post the first chapter soon. I'm not using the normal Naruko appearance (Oiroke Naruko) since it has be overused to death and beyond. Instead, I made up by mixing and matching Ino and Sakura's appearances. She is tall, slim, has long, loose hair and doesn't need to go stocking stuff all year round. (runs from a pissed off Sakura)


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own the 'Nara method' of the tree climbing exercise. That belongs to EroSlackerMicha.**

**Oh, I also don't own the Naruto manga, series or Shippuden.**

Chapter 5: Freedom and premonition

Naruto threw his kunai at Zabuza's head. It drew closer and closer. At the last second, Zabuza pulled his arm free of the water prison and moved away to avoid the flying blade. He glared at Naruto, a small cut under his eye. Everyone realized what was about to happen as Zabuza spun the Fūma Shuriken. _'Damn brat!'_ Zabuza mentally roared. Before he could throw the weapon, it was halted by the metal plate on the back of Kakashi's glove.

"Great plan Naruto," Kakashi said, "you guys have grown..."

"My shadow clones weren't meant to defeat Zabuza, just to hide that I had transformed into the shuriken," Naruto explained, "I figured I could break the prison."

"I got distracted and released the water prison," Zabuza said.

"You didn't release the it because of distraction," Kakashi corrected, "you were **forced** to release it because you were in danger." Zabuza's anger flared up. "I don't fall to the same jutsu twice," Kakashi warned.

Both jōnin jumped away from each other. When they landed, each started performing seals at an astonishing speed, both finishing at the same moment. **"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu,"** both said as dragons made of water formed and clashed with each other.

_'That many seals in seconds...and he copied it perfectly!'_ Sasuke thought in awe.

In the middle of the water war, the two jōnin were weapon locked. Zabuza was finding it strange. He shoved his opponent back and ran to circle him. Upon stopping and preparing to perform another jutsu, he found Kakashi had as well, both in the same pose.

Zabuza started nervously thinking, _'my movements...he's-'_

"-Copying them perfectly," Kakashi finished as he mirrored Zabuza's movements.

_'He read my mind?'_ Zabuza thought in shock, then got angry at Kakashi's sharingan and started flashing through seals, _'That-'_

"-Fucking eye is pissing me off," Kakashi finished as he mirrored Zabuza movements down to his expression.

"All you're doing is copying me-" Zabuza snapped.

"You can't beat me, you albino monkey!" both shouted.

Thrown further into shock and anger, now becoming slightly paranoid, Zabuza performed new seals, intending to use a different jutsu. "I'll make it so that mouth never opens again!" he declared. He then noticed something. _'Is that me?'_ he thought as he saw what appeared to be an image of himself behind Kakashi, _'this has to be genjutsu!'_ He made the mistake of letting the shock stop his hands.

"**Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu," **Kakashi stated as he finished the seals and his sharingan spun.

"Impossible!" Zabuza yelled as a veritable maelstrom slammed into him and threw him onto the land. _'It was my jutsu, yet he finished first!'_ Zabuza thought as he was washed away. He slammed into a tree and was pinned to the tree by kunai and, stopping him from moving.

"It's over," Kakashi said as he prepared another kunai.

"Can you see the future now?" Zabuza asked.

"Yeah," Kakashi said as he got ready to throw his weapon, "you're about to die." Yue appeared nearby with her snapped sword, intent on using the remaining two inches to finish Zabuza off in case Kakashi failed. Her clones had stayed with Tazuna.

Before any could react, a pair of senbon lanced into Zabuza's neck, killing him.

A masked ninja chuckled from the trees, "you're right, he died."

Naruto pulled himself out of the lake, angry at seeing Zabuza's corpse and the boy who had killed him with such ease. Kakashi moved to the corpse and checked for a pulse, not finding one.

"Thank you ever so much," the boy said as he bowed respectfully, "I have been waiting for the perfect moment to kill Momochi Zabuza for a while now."

"That mask, you're a hunter-nin from the Hidden Mist," Kakashi said.

"You are correct," the hunter-nin said.

"Hunter-nin?" Naruto asked.

"Yes. It is our duty to hunt missing-nin and kill them," the hunter-nin said.

Naruto was getting angrier and angrier about the whole situation. "Who the hell are you?" he suddenly yelled.

"He isn't an enemy Naruto," Kakashi assured the hyperactive ninja.

"I ain't asking about that!" Naruto yelled, "He, a kid, killed Zabuza, that really strong guy, as if it was nothing! He isn't much different from us, but he makes us look stupid!"

"I know how you feel," Kakashi said as he ruffled Naruto's hair, "there are kids in this world who are stronger than me, but not much older than you." He briefly cast a look towards Yue and her clones. "One is closer to you than you would think..." he muttered so quietly that nobody heard him.

The hunter-nin vanished in a swirl of leaves and appeared next to Zabuza. The boy took Zabuza's corpse on his shoulder and lifted it. "The battle is over and I must dispose of this body," the boy said, "farewell." With that last word, he and Zabuza's corpse vanished in a swirl of leaves. Yue threw her broken sword at the spot Zabuza's body had rested with a growl. She noisily stomped away from the tree and went towards her fellow genin.

Kakashi put his headband back in place and sighed. "Time to get Tazuna home, let's go."

"Super thanks!" Tazuna laughed, "Come to my place and relax a while."

Kakashi suddenly fell to the floor. The genin and bunshin ran over to him, most were worried about him. _'Guess I overused the sharingan...again,'_ Kakashi thought.

A while later, after being carried by five Yue bunshin, the real Yue, Naruto and Sasuke, Kakashi was in a fair sized house and on a futon, covered up.

"Are you alright Sensei?" Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami asked.

"Yeah, I just can't move for about a week," Kakashi explained.

"The sharingan is incredible, but it really takes a lot out of you," Sakura said as she sat next to his futon, "you need to think before using it!" Kakashi realized how Naruto felt when he was being lectured by Sakura since he was now receiving one himself. "It is a good thing Yue had used kage bunshin earlier or it would have been harder to bring you here," Sakura finished.

"We defeated a strong ninja," Tazuna said with a wide smile, "we should be safe for a while."

"Who was that masked kid?" Sakura asked.

"He was a hunter-nin," Yue explained, "they are a special group also known as body erasers. They make the bodies of missing-nin vanish without a trace. A ninja's body stores secrets, jutsu, chakra and even things that will reveal secrets of the ninja's village. If Kakashi were to die, anyone with the right skills could steal the sharingan for themselves. This is why you should be careful, because you could have your jutsu stolen this way. You could also lead to your village's destruction."

"A ninja's body is a trove of information," Kakashi cut in, "hunter-nin kill and dispose of the missing-nin who have abandoned their villages to prevent that information from getting stolen. They are specialists who guard their village's secrets. Nothingness, that is a ninja's end. Even the bodies of ninja that haven't betrayed their village are burned after dying to protect all their secrets."

"So Zabuza's been cut up and thrown away?" Sakura asked, then shivered at the thought.

_[Unknown part of the forest...]_

The hunter-nin was leaning over Zabuza's body, tools laid out beside him. He took a scissor-like tool and moved it close to Zabuza's mouth. "First I'll cut the mouth cloth and drain some blood, then I can..." He came very close, but Zabuza seized his hand and said, "That's alright, I can do it myself. He pulled the wrappings off his mouth and smiled with a slightly crazed look on his face.

"So you already came back.." the boy said.

"Damn, that hurt," Zabuza said as he yanked a needle from his neck.

"You shouldn't do that. You may really kill yourself if you pull them out like that," the hunter-nin warned with concern.

"How long are you going to wear that ridiculous mask?" Zabuza asked.

The boy grabbed the mask and started removing it. "It reminds me of the old days...and it really helped for this act," he said as he revealed a feminine face. "If I hadn't saved you then, you would be dead for real," he continued.

"Next time you put me into a momentary death, don't use my neck. There are safer places to put those things" Zabuza said as he replaced the bandages on his mouth, "you are annoying...as usual."

"You're right," the boy said happily. Zabuza just stared at him. "I didn't want to scar your body...and the neck doesn't have much muscle so it is easier to put the needles there. You should be immobile for a week, though you might be able to move a little before that." Zabuza kept his eyes on the boy, "you are pure and clever, that is what I like about you." The boy chuckled, "that's cause I'm still a kid," he then stood up, "the mist has cleared. Next time we meet them...will you be alright?"

"The sharingan will be destroyed next time," Zabuza declared.

_[Tazuna's house...]_

Kakashi suddenly woke up, scaring a few years off Naruto and Sakura's lifespans.

"You're awake Sensei," Tsunami said.

"We were so close to seeing under his mask!" Sakura whined.

_'What is wrong?'_ Kakashi thought, _'Zabuza is dead...but something feels wrong...did I miss something?'_ He then looked at Yue, remembering her abilities. He wanted to ask her to confirm something he was thinking about. Too bad she didn't look too happy right now...

**A/N~**

**I left you with a short chapter last time. To make up for this, chapter 5 and 6 are released early.**

**Sky Zephyrus:** I am releasing the first chapter of Kyubi's Kit, my Naruko/Ino/Sakura fic on Monday. Before you ask, Ino comes first in part I, Sakura joins the lesbian harem in part II.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Suspicions, Yue-sensei's training

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto. Yue is mine. I'd prefer Ino though or Tayuya...**

"What do you want?" Yue asked as she noticed Kakashi's stare. She was scowling at him.

Kakashi was silent, still thinking.

"What is it?" Naruto asked.

"Hunter-nin usually destroy the body right where they fall," Kakashi said.

"So what?" Sakura asked.

"Did we see how the body disposed of?" Kakashi asked.

"How would we know?" Sakura sighed, "that boy took the body with him."

Yue sweat dropped. For being the smartest of the group, Sakura had just missed a painfully obvious point.

"What about the weapons used to kill Zabuza?" Kakashi asked.

Sasuke made the connection due to his extensive tool studies. "No way..."

Kakashi looked to Yue, "what did you hear after the needles hit?"

"I felt his chakra vanish instantly...but a metallic clicking was coming from his neck for a few moments after they hit," Yue said. Kakashi nodded a bit.

"What does that mean?" Tazuna asked.

"Most likely, Zabuza is still alive," Kakashi said.

"What the hell?" Naruto yelled.

"You checked and said he was dead!" Sakura yelled.

"Judging by everything I now know, it was a temporary death," Kakashi said, "Yue's hearing confirms that. When the spine is severed, which is the preferred method of senbon using assassins, the pulse should abruptly stop as well, but it didn't, meaning he was still alive. Also, that kind of attack wouldn't instantly stop the flow of chakra."

Kakashi then started to explain everything else. "The needles that were used on Zabuza have a very low chance of killing a person. Hunter-nin know of the human body structure, putting one into a temporary death is as easy for them as killing. He carried Zabuza, a much heavier person, and used a weapon with low fatality. These two points mean his objective was to save Zabuza, not kill him," he said, "we can't ignore this possibility."

"Aren't you looking into this too deeply?" Tazuna asked, "hunter-nin are supposed to kill missing-nin."

"We can't be too lax with all this suspicion," Kakashi said, "we should prepare just in case Zabuza is alive...Even if he is dead, Gato may have hired more ninja." Kakashi noticed Naruto was shaking in excitement. _'He's happy that Zabuza might be alive still.'_

"How do we prepare before it is to late?" Sakura asked, "you can't really move."

"You guys will be trained," Kakashi said with a light chuckle.

"Training?" Sakura asked, "What is a little training going to do? Our enemy is someone even you struggled against!"

"Trying to get us killed?" Inner Sakura yelled.

"Sakura... you guys are the ones who saved me while I was struggling," Kakashi said. "you guys are growing rapidly. Especially Naruto. You've improved the most."

_'Well, he does seem a bit better than before but...'_ Sakura thought.

"Well, this is just some training until I get better, you still won't be able to defeat him without me," Kakashi said.

"If Zabuza is still alive, what is stopping him from attacking us while you are down and we are training?" Sakura asked.

"The death state he was put into makes it so that the person's body shuts down and it takes a while to return to normal," Kakashi explained.

"So we train until then," Naruto said, "sounds like fun!"

"That's not fun," a kid said, appearing out of nowhere.

"Inari! Where were you?" Tazuna asked excitedly.

"Welcome back grandpa," the boy, Inari, said as he took off his sandals and walked over to the table.

"Inari, say hello to these people," Tsunami said, "they are the ninja who protected grandpa."

The boy looked at the five ninja. "Mom, they are going to die."

"What did you say, brat?" Naruto yelled.

"Nobody can win against Gato," the boy said grimly.

Yue chuckled slightly and walked up to the table. She leaned in close to his face, her eyes hardening into a cold glare as she stared Inari in the eyes, freezing him to the core. Her nails dug into the table, leaving faint trails in their wake. "Kid, I've been killed twice by better people than some old fool who can't do the dirty work on his own," she hissed quietly before she went over to a window to watch the water. The only other person who had heard her was Sasuke. Inari took a good look at the ninja in his house and scoffed, mumbling about dead idiots.

"You brat! I'll-" Naruto yelled as he made to rush the kid, but Sakura stopped him. "Why are you getting angry at a child, you idiot!" Sakura yelled.

"Hey Inari! Listen!" Naruto yelled, "I am the **super** hero who will one day be an incredible ninja called Hokage! I don't know about this Gato guy, but he has nothing on me!"

"Are you stupid?" Inari said, "there is no such thing as a hero." Naruto tried to rush the kid again, but Sakura stopped him once again. "If you don't want to die, you should leave," Inari said as he turned away.

"Inari! Where are you going?" Tazuna asked.

"To look at the ocean from my room," Inari said, then left.

A few minutes later, Naruto was headed to Inari's room to give him a piece of his mind, but heard the boy crying and left him alone.

_[An hour later]_

The three genin and probationary genin were in a small clearing with a few tall trees. Yue was reluctantly training the genin since it would be best if Kakashi rested. She had been told what to teach them and how to do it, though she protested, saying there were better methods and they could learn more as well. "We will start the training now," she said, crossing her arms.

"Hell Yeah!" Naruto yelled, pumped up to Naruto level excitement.

"Before that, we need to talk about chakra," Yue said, sounding _absolutely_ thrilled.

"Chakra? What's that?" Naruto asked. Yue gaped at him.

"You're and ninja and you don't know what chakra is? What did you learn in class?" Sakura yelled.

Naruto chuckled, "I used to sleep through the hard lessons."

Yue ran her hand down her face. She looked to Sakura, who gave Naruto a lesson on chakra. Naruto wondered about why she labelled the scroll 'beautiful young girl Sakura's lesson on chakra,' not really paying as much attention to her lesson as he should have. She shoved it into his arms and told him to read it later. Naruto looked like he was ready to enshrine the first physical object that Sakura had given him.

"I didn't completely understand that, but it has something you learn with the body, right?" Naruto said, pissing Sakura off.

"Naruto is right, for once," Sasuke said, "we can already use chakra and ninjutsu."

"You aren't using either of them properly," Yue stated.

"What?" Naruto yelled.

"Listen...releasing chakra means bringing out physical and spiritual energy and mixing them within your body. Based on what jutsu is being used, the type and amount of chakra used is different," Yue explained while reading from a scroll, "you guys aren't using it right. Even if you release massive amounts of chakra, it's worthless if you have pathetic control and the jutsu fails. It is also a waste of chakra and it will prevent you from fighting for too long. You will just become a next to useless meat shield. You still don't know how to limit the chakra to what you need for the jutsu, that is control."

"So...what are we doing?" Naruto asked as he scratched the back of his head, not listening well again.

"Simple, you will receive training to gain more chakra control," Yue said.

"What are we going to do?" Sakura asked, mildly worried.

"Tree climbing," Yue said.

"Tree climbing?" Naruto was confused.

"Yeah," Yue said simply with a few sparkles around her face.

"What kind of training is that?" Sakura asked. 'W-where are those sparkles coming from and why are they there?'

"Listen until the end!" Yue said sternly as she lightly slapped Sakura's shoulder, "you are going to climb only using your feet. No hands, no arms, no legs, no teeth, just your feet."

Naruto was smiling, thinking of how fun it sounded. Sasuke was mildly surprised. "How?" Sakura asked.

"Watch," Yue said. She stood with her arms at her sides and inhaled, then exhaled slowly. The small ninja bolted for a tree, then ran up the tree in a spiral, as if it were the ground. The genin were all surprised at this feat.

"She's climbing," Naruto said. "Straight up and with only her feet," Sakura finished. Sasuke just stared.

"Understand?" Yue asked as she flipped down off the trunk and stood on a branch with her back to them, then back slid on it so she was upside down on the branch, "gather chakra on the bottom of your feet and climb up the tree. This is something you can do once you have proper control." Her hood had flipped up and Sakura noted the cute cat ears on it.

"How is learning to climb trees going to make us stronger?" Sakura yelled.

Yue looked down, er, up at them as she leaned against the tree from her branch, "this teaches you how to control chakra and to bring out as much as you need for this. As you should know, this is the most important part of using jutsu. This is kind of difficult even for me, an experienced ninja. The amount of chakra needed is small and has to be done properly. It is also said that the bottom of the feet is the most difficult place to gather chakra. Simply put, if you learn this, you should be able to use many different jutsu because of your increased control."

Naruto was shaking with excitement.

"You also, as a result of this, develop the stamina needed for proper chakra control," Yue said as she stared at Sakura, "depending on the jutsu, control of chakra can be difficult. In battle, you are often in motion while using jutsu, making it even more difficult to focus. From this training, you develop the stamina needed for the control," she pulled out three kunai, "talkin' all day isn't going to accomplish much. This is something that, as Naruto said, you learn with your bodies."

She threw the kunai to the feet of the genin. "Use those kunai to mark how high you up the tree you got and then try to surpass it," Yue said, "you guys will need to run up the tree like I did so make sure to get a good running start. Also, return those when you are finished with them. I only have eleven of them with me."

"This is nothing!" Naruto yelled, "I could do this for breakfast cause I'm the most improved!"

"Pick a tree and put your skills where your mouth isn't," Yue said, knowing a good challenge was the perfect motivation for the young Uzumaki.

Naruto gathered chakra to his feet, as did the others. They all ran for a different tree. Naruto didn't focus enough chakra and bounced off the tree to fall on his head. Sasuke ran up a few feet before his chakra blew him off the tree. He quickly swiped the kunai at the tree to mark his progress. _'I didn't think it would be this hard,'_ Sasuke thought, _'too much chakra and you break the bark...too little and you pull a Naruto.'_

"This is easy!" a happy voice chirped from the trees.

Sakura was sitting on the highest safe branch of her tree, her kunai embedded at about chest level. She has chuckling and sticking her tongue out at her teammates and temporary sensei.

"Looks like Sakura is the best now..." Yue said, hoping to goad Naruto into working harder.

"You're great Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled happily while Sasuke ignored the pink haired girl. Sakura slumped her shoulders, depressed that Sasuke had brushed her off again.

"Not only is she smart, but she has great chakra control and okay stamina," Yue said, "looks like Sakura is closest to being Hokage, unlike someone I know," she teased. She then looked at Sasuke, "I guess Konoha is better off without the Uchiha if Sasuke is an example an Uchiha's 'genius' shinobi. A clanless girl is beating you easily."

"Shut up Yue!" Sakura yelled, "you'll make Sasuke-kun hate me!' Yue sighed, thinking that Sakura was way too hung up on Sasuke.

_'Naruto and Sasuke have incredible chakra reserves,'_ Yue thought, _'if this works out well, they could become quite powerful.'_ She stopped hanging on the branch and fell to another one, which she used to safely land on the ground.

She took a moment to growl to herself angrily. She had suggested the method she had used to master tree climbing, but Kakashi had expressly denied the option. How was running up a tree and possibly breaking yourself the easy way? The way she learned it was much better. By practising on increasingly steeper surfaces, starting with a steep hill, one could safely learn how to tree climb with time. It only took three days to learn too, leaving time for the three to learn water walking and maybe a few decent jutsu.

Then again, one could just lay on the ground and set their feet on the tree until they could make their feet stick to it properly...

That might be the most effective method after all. Yue made a mental note to one day, around the same time Hell froze over and she was chosen to be Hokage, to get the council to reintroduce tree climbing to the Academy's standard lessons and suggest they use the lying down method. The Nara clan would worship her as a goddess for all time if she had it instated.

Yue went off to the side to sharpen her taijutsu, ninjutsu and tool use, hating her own uselessness in the last two battles. _'Now if only I could replace my broken sword,'_ Yue thought as she started. Something else bothered her as well. Her chakra reserves seemed to have been more than halved since the last time she could mold chakra. Whether it was a side effect of having her chakra sealed by those bindings for a year and a half or something else, she didn't know.

Inari was watching from a distance, thinking of how they were wasting their time.

_[A building somewhere in the forest...]_

Gato and two tall men walked into the room, the men being Gato's samurai bodyguards.

"So even you, Demon of the Mist Zabuza, came back defeated," Gato said, "guess Mist ninja really aren't that useful after all if you can't even get revenge for your men." The samurai moved to draw their swords. Haku tensed, ready to stop the attack. "One moment," Gato said, halting his men, "You don't need to stay quiet...maybe-!"

Haku grabbed Gato's arm and crushed it, breaking the bones. "Don't touch Zabuza with your filthy hands," he threatened. The samurai drew their katanas to defend their master, but Haku took their katanas before that and held them to each man's throats. "You shouldn't do that," Haku said, "I'm angry..."

"One more chance!" Gato yelled, "fail again and I will have you chased out!" Gato and his men stormed out.

"You didn't have to do that," Zabuza said, showing a kunai in his hand.

"I know," Haku said, "but we can't kill Gato yet. We will only be hunted again if we cause trouble. We have to be patient"

"You're right," Zabuza said.

_[Back with team 7...]_

Naruto fell down once again. Sasuke had barely made any progress since his first attempt, maybe a whole foot if he was lucky. Sakura was laying down at the base of her tree, exhausted and marvelling at her teammate's stamina.

_'Naruto isn't getting anywhere,'_ Sakura thought, _'he should give up soon.'_

Naruto turned away from the tree angrily and started to walk away. _'I knew it. He's too easy to read. Huh?'_ she thought as Naruto walked up to her.

"Umm, Sakura-chan?" he asked, "can you give me some tips?" Sakura just stared at him, then blushed a bit before explaining her methods.

_'That kid is going to get more and more powerful,'_ Yue thought as she felt his chakra, _'his potential for chakra is above Sasuke's, Kakashi's and many of the ninja I know of and it is all thanks to Kyūbi and his father.'_

**A/N~**

Yue is missing chakra, and she was the one who gave the lesson as well. Just to let you know, she is still going to be useless in the next big fight. In fact, she won't be useful in a fight until the second part of the chūnin exams. And yes, she knows Naruto's father is Minato. Kinda hard not to know.

**DarkBringer:** (chapter 4 review) Naruto will have a different outfit before the timeskip. He will have the same outfit in Part II, but lose the jacket soon after it starts.

And Sakura will have slightly larger breasts, as will Ino, but not Hyūga clan's true kekkai genkai level. Sakura will be about B, maybe a large B while Ino will have C cup breasts. Not offensive or cumbersome.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 8: Heroes and recovery

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.**

Sakura was stretching while yawning, bored. She had nothing to do other than watch Tazuna and the others work on the bridge. "You seem bored all by yourself," Tazuna said, "Where is that blonde kid and the other two?"

"They're training," Sakura answered. "You don't have too?" Tazuna asked. "I already completed the training so Kakashi-sensei told me to guard you," the pink haired girl bragged.

"Tazuna!"

The old bridge builder looked back to see one of his old friends. "What is it Giichi?"

"I've been thinking...Can I stop working on the bridge?" Giichi asked.

"Why? Why you too?" Tazuna asked.

"Tazuna..." Giichi said, "we've been close for a while and I do want to help you...but if this continues, Gato will notice us. If you die, what's the point?" Giichi took a deep breath, "we should quit building this bridge."

"I can't do that," Tazuna said, "this is our bridge. This is the bridge we started building together, believing we could bring resources into our poor country."

"But if we die?" Giichi protested.

"It's noon, let's stop for today," Tazuna said as he walked away. He looked back at the other man, "Giichi, you don't have to come tomorrow."

In the village streets, Sakura walked next to Tazuna, guarding him. "I'm supposed to bring the food for lunch home," Tazuna said. Sakura was stunned at how poor and beaten down the village was. They walked into a store and Sakura noticed there was barely anything at all inside.

Without warning, a hand touched Sakura and she reacted as any girl with taijutsu training would. She screamed, "pervert!" and kicked the man in his face even as he tried to explain.

Back on the street, Tazuna was commenting on her outburst when a pair of hands touched her. She turned and saw a child holding his hands out. She gave the child some candy and he went away with a bright smile on his face.

"It's been like this since Gato came," Tazuna explained, "All the adults have given up. That is why I am building the bridge. It is a symbol of courage, a symbol people need so they can abandon their fear and stand up for themselves...If we can finish that bridge...the city will return to how it used to be, how it should be." Sakura thought of her teammates, training hard.

Back where the other three were, Yue was practising hand seals while Naruto and Sasuke were running up trees still. Naruto reached his limit and jumped back. He growled at Sasuke's continuing progress despite his renewed efforts. A moment later, Sasuke reached his limit and jumped between the two trees to slow his decent enough to avoid injury. On the way down, he saw Naruto's steady progress compared to his almost stopped progress. _'He's catching up!'_ Sasuke thought.

_'Grrr!'_ Naruto growled in anger, then remembered what Sakura had told him. Clear his head, relax and focus. He did so and took a step forward to try again when-

"Hey Naruto!" Sasuke called, causing Naruto to fall on his face. "What is it?" Naruto yelled, "I'm trying to train here! Your eyes for show?" Yue snickered at the comment.

Sasuke looked nervous and just hummed and mumbled. "What?" Naruto said, _'why is he talking to me?'_

"What did...Sakura tell...you?" Sasuke asked as he looked away.

A goofy smile spread across Naruto's face. "Secret," he said.

Later that night, the two were attempting to set eating speed records, sort of like how Naruto held the speed record (and quantity record) in Konoha for ramen eating. "This is good," Tazuna said heartily, "It's been so long since we had so many people over." Yue had looked at the meal and said, "no meat," but ate anyways without further complaint. The two boys finished and held their bowls up. "More," they said, then promptly puked on the floor, grossing Sakura out.

"If your just gonna throw up, then don't eat it!" she chastised, more towards Naruto than Sasuke of course.

"No, I have to eat," Sasuke said after recovering.

"Yeah, we need to so we can become stronger," Naruto said as he recovered.

_'That's right,'_ Kakashi thought, finally well enough to walk with the assistance of a crutch, _'no need to throw up though.'_

After eating, Sakura was looking a picture with the top right corner ripped out. "Why do you have a torn picture on the wall?," she asked, "Inari-kun was staring at it all the time. It also looks like someone tore it that way on purpose..."

Tsunami, Tazuna and Inari suddenly became stiffer. Kakashi felt the tension in the air while Yue smelled a change in the air. "It's my husband," Tsunami said, not turning to face the others. "He was also the man this city called a hero," Tazuna said.

Inari got up and walked to the door. "Where are you going Inari?" Tsunami asked. His response was a slamming door. "Inari!" Tsunami yelled after her son, she then turned to her father angrily, "I told you not to talk about him in front of Inari!" She went away as well.

"What's wromg with Inari-kun?" Sakura asked. Naruto felt a stab. Why was it every boy other than him got a -kun on the end of their name?

"Inari's father wasn't his blood related father, but they were just as close as a real father and son could be...he laughed a lot back then." The older man stopped as he cried a little at the old memories, then he composed himself and continued, "But he changed since that incident with his father..." The ninja waited for the older man to continue. "On the day of that incident, courage was robbed from Inari and the people's hearts."

"Incident?" Kakashi asked, "what happened to Inari-kun?"

Tazuna explained about how Inari had met a man named Kaiza who had saved Inari from drowning because of some bullies. He told of how he had become a part of Tazuna's family and how he had helped stop a flood from destroying part of the city, making the man a hero. "But when Gato came to this city..." the older man stopped his story.

"What happened?" Kakashi asked, "was it this 'incident' that happened?"

Tazuna shook in anger, "Kaiza was put to death before everyone as a warning to everyone... Since then, Inari changed, then Tsunami, then the whole village."

Naruto listened to the tale and remembered Inari's speech about heroes and then the boy's crying. He got up to leave, but tripped. "What are you doing Naruto?" Sakura asked as Naruto slammed into the ground.

"No training," Kakashi ordered, "you used too much chakra and it could kill you if you release more."

"I'm gonna prove it," Naruto said as he got up. "Prove what?" Sakura asked. Naruto walked out of the house, "I'm going to show this world that heroes do exist."

The next morning, Sakura came down with a loud yawn. Tazuna saw her. "Naruto didn't come back last night?" he asked. Sakura sat down, "he was out climbing trees after that story...Simple idiot that he is. He probably overdid it and died." The last comment was a joke, but Tsunami took it seriously. "I hope he's alright," she said, "a child in the woods at night..."

"Don't worry," Kakashi said, "he may look like that, but he is a real ninja."

"Honestly...I wouldn't be surprised if he overdid it and killed himself," Sasuke said in all seriousness, "he is a moron after all."

Naruto, who had worked himself to the point of passing out, was woken up by a a cute, older girl. "You'll catch a cold sleeping out her," she said. Naruto sat up and rubbed his eyes, "who are you?" he asked.

A few minutes later Naruto found the plant the girl was looking for and was helping her pick some. "This plant is medicine?" he asked as he looked at the plant. "Thanks for helping," she said.

"You are working real early today lady," Naruto said.

"You too,"she replied, "what are you doing out here anyways?"

Naruto smiled, "training!"

he blinked at him, "that forehead protector, are you a ninja?" she asked.

"Yep, I'm a ninja!" Naruto said happily.

"Why are you training?" she asked.

"I want to be stronger," Naruto said, his smile growing bigger.

"But you look strong already," she said.

"No! I need to get even stronger!" Naruto countered.

"Why?" she asked.

"So I become the best ninja in my village and then everyone will respect me," Naruto said, "I also have something to prove."

"Is it personal or is it for someone else?" she asked. Naruto stared at her like she spoke a foreign language, causing her to giggle. "What is so funny?" Naruto exploded. "Do you have an important person?" she asked. Naruto, as many would guess, didn't get it. "When you have an important person to protect, then you become much, much stronger," she said. Naruto remembered things that proved her words to be true, then said, "yeah, I know what you mean."

She smiled and stood up, walking away. "You will become very strong," she said, "let's meet again sometime."

"Yeah!" Naruto said.

She stopped for a moment. "Before I forget," she said, "I'm a **boy**." Naruto freaked out, wondering how a boy could be cuter than Sakura. Sasuke and Yue walked up as Naruto pondered how strange the world was.

Yue sneezed. "Too many herbs," she complained as she rushed to get away from the boy and his scent.

The nest day, Sakura and Kakashi went to find Naruto and Sasuke so they could eat breakfast. Yue had stayed behind with Tazuna, having "done all the training I can for now," as she said.

"Where is Naruto?" Kakashi asked, "he left again last night..."

"He missed breakfast," Sakura said, "Sasuke-kun also went for a walk and isn't back yet."

A kunai fell to the ground near them, causing them to look up and find a smiling Naruto looking at them from a branch near the top, laying down on it.

"He's already up there?" she asked. Kakashi just chuckled.

"Look at how high I can go already!" he yelled. He then stood up and lost his balance. Both watched helplessly as Naruto fell back, only for him to stick to the bottom of the branch. "Just kidding!" he chuckled.

"You scared me!" Sakura yelled. 'Good, now I can kill you later myself!' Inner Sakura yelled.

Naruto's feet suddenly lost their grip of the tree, his chakra finally running too low or his focus was lost. "Stop being a show off!" Sakura yelled. Naruto would have fallen, but Sasuke ran up the tree and grabbed his foot. "Moron," the Uchiha said. "You're the best Sasuke-kun!" Sakura squealed. Kakashi smiled at how well they were growing as they all went back to Tazuna's house.

A little while later, Kakashi was doing pushups with one finger while Tazuna and Sakura sat on his back. He was up to 198. "I was going to ask earlier, but why are you here? Protecting someone who lied to you?" Tazuna asked. "Abandoning one's duty is not courageous," Kakashi explained, "under courage is nothing. That is what the Yondaime Hokage said. Shinobi don't move only because of money." He then got up and noticed how he was almost fully recovered.

_[Zabuza's hideout]_

Zabuza tested his body's recovery by manipulating the water in an apple with his chakra. The apple burst apart. "You've almost fully recovered," Haku said. "We will attack soon, Haku," Zabuza ordered. Haku agreed.

**A/N~**

Sorry for the late release, but I had to get used to doing something I'm not used to: waking up in the morning. (usual wake up time: Noon to 1:40pm) There also might be a slight delay in everything I do because I have (possible) jury duty this week.

**Sky Zephyrus:** Confession time! I'm currently working on chapter 16 of KTD. I think I've proofed up to chapter 10 or 11. I'm just releasing these slowly so people have time to read them and review each chapter so I can fix any mistakes. Nervousness and fear of people shouting "Plagiarist!" or something like that are the reasons this fic didn't get posted long ago. That and I didn't have the manga chapters beyond the beginning of the Sasugay vs Garra fight. Now I got up to the beginning of Part II, which is my current goal.

**9 tailed reaper:** Sasuke hate is icing? I thought it was a whole other cake to be enjoyed with the NaruSaku and Yuri cakes...

Sakura will learn some new moves, as will Naruto. You will soon see one of the moves Yue will teach Naruto. Even though you didn't mention it, Ino will have a taijutsu style that I think works good for the Yamanaka clan. Both Sakura and Ino will know some kenjutsu, maybe Naruto too. As for non-canon moves, yeah. Some moves they learned are learned from Yue's second kenjutsu sensei.

Final thing: Anyone up for a few new Rasengan and a new clone technique? Hope you are, because they are coming later. Not as many new rasengan as in Necessary Darkness, but there will be at least two new ones in KTD. Yue is also going to have a hand full of jutsu I made just for her since she can't use most regular jutsu. I balanced her jutsu well, or at least I think I did. Most are below B-rank.

**Thedarkpokemaster:** Sakura as powerful as Naruto and Sasuke? Not happening. She will be stronger than in canon, but her weakness is a major part of the story. She needs to rely on Naruto or it just ruins part II.

I'm going to alter who's rank is what for Part II. There will be three more people from the Konoha 11 that will be jōnin. Here's a clue: Naruto is still going to be a genin.(gives Danzō and the council the finger)

**DarkBringer:** My crossovers (which are all being worked on) contain abilities or items from other series, not actual characters. Well, two I am planning has other series' characters, but that is the only one.

Ninja Gaiden? Sorry, I have some really bad memories of that series (from the crappy games) so I won't be doing anything with that.

Yue having met Minato. She would have been about two or three when he died, so she wouldn't remember him even if she did. Can't really say anything, but she knows about him and his ideals.

You misunderstood my reply, more like I didn't write it well enough. There will be less orange for the Part II outfit (no orange pants!), but he will have the orange and black jacket at first. It gets burned to a crisp. Besides, Naruto has BRIGHT BLONDE HAIR! No amount of black will hide that.

**All:** I have decided that rather than releasing just Kyubi's Kit this week, I will be releasing the first chapter a new fic that hit me like a lightning bolt a few days ago. It's a crossover, of sorts, basically a Naruto/DMC type deal. I am actually using it to help me with writing long chapters. Chapter 16 and onward of Two Demons will, hopefully, have longer chapters.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Improvement and Kekkai Genkai

**Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine since Yue isn't in it.**

Naruto and Sasuke entered the hut, both beaten up from training, but Naruto looked like he floored himself since Sasuke had to help him. They sat down and ate their meal in peace. When it was over, Inari stared at Naruto, who looked ready to nap right there on the table. His expression changed from boredom to anger quickly.

"What is wrong with you!" Inari yelled, "no matter how much you try, Gato can't be beaten! You'll just die! Leave this village while you have a chance!"

Everyone looked at the boy after he stopped yelling, everyone except Naruto and Yue. Yue was rubbing her ears and Naruto looked like he was thinking with his eyes closed. He suddenly opened his eyes and glared at the boy. "At least I'm trying something instead of running away like a whiny little brat and bawling myself to sleep!" Naruto snapped. Inari was shocked at this, but recovered quickly. "You don't know anything about our village, about me!" Inari yelled, "you don't know how it is!"

"You got that right," Naruto said, "I wouldn't know what it is to be a useless little brat who only cries day in, day out." Inari ran out of the room and went to the dock. Naruto sat there while Sakura yelled at him. Yue curled up in a corner to sleep while Sasuke tended to a few persistent wounds. Kakashi saw the chance to slip away and did so, but not to read his book. That would happen later.

Outside, he found the small boy glaring at the water and throwing rocks into it. Kakashi sat next to Inari and waited for him to run out of rocks.

"You know..." Kakashi said, "Naruto doesn't really hate you." Inari was shocked at that. "You and him are similar...that is why he said that."

"How?" Inari asked angrily.

"Naruto lost his father too," Kakashi said, causing Inari to lose his anger, "actually, he never met either of his parents since they died very soon after his birth, so he has been alone his whole life. He is probably tired of crying all the time... He knows how hard it is and is just trying to cheer you up in his...unique way." Inari looked at the water. "But he knows it can be better," Kakashi said, "he recently made friends and is finally being accepted." Kakashi stood up, leaving the boy to think by himself.

_[Next day]_

"Bye sensei, Sakura-chan, Sasuke, dad," Tsunami said.

"Make sure to take care of Naruto," Kakashi told Tsunami, "he used too much chakra yesterday and should be down till tomorrow. You guard Inari-kun and Tsunami-san while we are away, Yue." The girl nodded. The Jōnin, bridge builder and two genin left.

_[Bridge]_

The area was completely deserted. "What is going on?" Tazuna asked. A thick mist rolled in and Zabuza and the hunter-nin walked out of it. The Konoha ninja fell into a defensive position around Tazuna.

"I'm not too shocked to see that fake hunter-nin next to him," Sakura said. The other two nodded.

"Kakashi...I see you at least dumped one of those trash genin, but you surprise me," Zabuza said, "getting rid of such a useful tool as Kazeneko...has your mind started to rot?"

"Tool?" Sasuke asked.

"Heh heh heh," Zabuza chuckled, "all shinobi are tools to be used by greater people, whether it is higher ranked ninja or a rich man."

"Disgusting," Sakura said.

"It is somewhat true though," Kakashi said.

"Enough," Zabuza said and summoned more mist. Zabuza clones walked up and drew their swords. "Poor kid," they said as they saw the shaking Uchiha, "still scared."

Sasuke smirked and performed a rapid speed slashing attack with his kunai, destroying all the clones. "I'm not shaking in fear," Sasuke said, "it's excitement."

"Impressive," Zabuza said, "he is rather skilled. Looks like you may have a rival in speed, Haku."

"Even thought they only possess one tenth the strength," the hunter-nin stated, "cutting down six is an impressive feat." Sasuke gave one of his trademark grunts and a smirk.

Back at Tsunami's house, Naruto suddenly burst out of the room. "Kakashi-sensei! Sasuke? Sakura-chan?" he asked as he looked around. He was about to call for Yue when she and Tsunami walked out of the kitchen. "Naruto-kun?" Tsunami asked, "shouldn't you be resting?" Yue was holding a knife and a cutting board, which she had accidentally cut in two with the knife.

"AHHH! Dammit!" Naruto said as he started shrugging off his pyjamas and started getting dressed, "they left me behind...AGAIN!" He finished getting dressed and rushed out the door. "Naruto!" Yue yelled as she tossed what she was carrying behind her, then ran out to follow him. The knife fell into the sink and the cutting board pieces landed in the garbage.

She found Naruto running across the forest floor, seeming to head for Tazuna's bridge. Yue followed him in the trees. "Naruto!" Yue yelled, "slow down! Even with the K- I mean your stamina, you need to take it easy!" Naruto didn't seem to listen. She was about to yell again when she noticed she was about to hit a tree. She slammed into it on all fours and stuck for a moment, but chakra burst from her hands and feet, blasting apart the bark as she was catapulted backwards. _'Damn! After lecturing them on chakra control!'_ she thought as she flew backwards, unable to stop herself or change which way she was facing. She looked back and saw a tree coming at her. "Damn," she cursed again as she slammed into the tree and was knocked unconscious. _'It never helps to be as skinny and light as a rake...'_ were her last thoughts as she fell to the forest floor, sitting against the tree she had slammed into.

Naruto hadn't noticed his petite teammate following him or her knocking herself out, but he did hear the bushes shake and a strange noise make it to his ears. He drew a kunai and cautiously approached the source of the noise.

Back on the bridge, Sakura stayed with Tazuna. Sasuke was next to Kakashi. Both were ready to fight their respective targets.

"I guess its time to end this," Kakashi said as he went to right his headband.

"Sharingan again?" Zabuza asked, "is that all you can do?"

Before Kakashi could move the headband, Zabuza flashed out of the mist and struck at Kakashi with a Mist village assassination kunai, but Kakashi put his right hand in the way and the knife pierced it instead. He glared furiously at the assassin.

"You know," Zabuza said, "I had my partner here, Haku, watch the entire battle last time. Not only is he strong, but he's very smart. He only needs to see a jutsu once and then he can come up with a way to beat it."

"Really?" Kakashi asked, then lifted his headband to reveal he had uncovered the sharingan.

"The sharingan isn't something you should be showing off again and again," Zabuza said as he closed his eyes, freed his weapon, and faded into the mist. Kakashi's eyes searched around for a sign of attack. "That is useless," Zabuza said, "since the sharingan, like all dōjutsu, allows you to see chakra, I used more chakra than normal to make this mist. There is too much chakra for you to see me."

_'He's right,'_ Kakashi thought. He got a kunai ready anyways. "How do you expect to defeat the sharingan with mist?"

"Simple," the assassin said from the mist, "the sharingan is nothing more than reading and genjutsu based dōjutsu. If you can't see me, then it can't copy my jutsu. If I can't see you, then genjutsu won't work."

"But how will you attack?" Kakashi asked, marvelling at the plan.

"You forget Kakashi," Zabuza said, "I am an expert in silent killing. I can track you by sound." As if to prove it, Zabuza appeared from nowhere and sliced Kakashi's chest with his sword. He then faded away again.

"You seem to forget as well," Kakashi said, "I was in ANBU too. Sharingan alone wasn't what let me survive all my battles."

A small distance away in the fog, Haku and Sasuke faced each other. The Uchiha had been drawn out by the hunter-nin threatening his client. Sasuke threw some shuriken Haku deflected them with his needles, then noticed Sasuke had used them as a distraction so he could draw closer. Sasuke swung his kunai at Haku, who blocked it, then moved his head as Sasuke threw the kunai at short range, thought it still scratched his mask. Haku shoved him away, and jumped back. He heard the shuriken coming at him and kept dodging back as three shuriken forced him back. A fourth slammed into the bridge railing and caught his attention. He only noticed it was a feint when the heir punched him in the chest, thought he caught the hand afterwards.

The two stared at each other as they were deadlocked. "I think it is time to finish this," Haku said. "How so?" Sasuke asked, "the way I see it, I'm winning." Haku chuckled, "I have two advantages. First, the water on the floor. Second, I have tied up one of your hands." The fake hunter then performed a number of seals with one hand. _'W-what?'_ Sasuke thought, _'one handed seals?'_ The water started to glow with chakra and what appeared to be mirrors of ice rose up from the ground to surround the two. **"****Makyō Hyōshō,****"** Haku said as he released Sasuke and jumped back and into a mirror. All the mirrors showed Haku holding his needles.

"Bunshin?" Sasuke asked.

Light bounced off a mirror and Sasuke was engulfed in what felt like a storm of pointed blades. When they let up, he almost fell over. 'That wasn't a bunshin. What the hell was it?' the heir thought.

Kakashi and Zabuza got a brief view of the ice mirrors, then the mist engulfed the two young ninja again.

"What was that?" Kakashi asked.

"You should know Kakashi, since you possess one in that eye of yours," Zabuza said.

"What?" Sakura asked.

"Kekkai Genkai," Zabuza stated.

"Kekkai Genkai? What is that?" Sakura asked, never hearing of them before.

"It is a jutsu passed on through the blood," Kakashi said, "a jutsu that is literally written in one's DNA. Superior ninja through selective breeding. The Sharingan is one of them, though it can't copy other Kekkai Genkai."

"Jutsu written in...blood," Sakura whispered. The thought of such a thing was fearsome.

"I sure do have a useful tool, don't I Kakashi?" Zabuza asked from the mist, "unlike the trash that follows you around."

"My students aren't trash," Kakashi said, "Sasuke also possesses one of those bloodlines."

"That dark haired brat?" Zabuza asked.

"He is the last of the Uchiha," Kakashi said, "he is also the top rookie and a prodigy."

"A survivor from that tragic clan..." Zabuza said, "he still won't win and that doesn't help you at all."

Kakashi smiled. "Sakura is the brightest of all the genin graduates from this year. Yue, as you know, is one of the greatest of Konoha's sword bearing ninja and she even has eyes comparable to my own sharingan when it comes to reading an opponent's movements." His smile grew wider. "Then there is Naruto..."

"What about that blonde idiot?" Zabuza asked, getting bored of this.

"He is the #1 loudest, #1 most unpredictable ninja in all of Konoha," Kakashi said, "if not the world."

Back at Tsunami's house, Gato's samurai guards had captured her as insurance in case Zabuza proved to be ineffective. She was tied up and sitting on the floor when her brat broke in. "What are you doing?" the boy yelled. "Tch," the one with the hat turned to face the kid and started thinking. "Gato said we only needed one hostage..." the other said. Both snickered as they drew their swords and walked up to the kid.

"STOP IT!"

They turned to the captive woman as she glared at them. "If you harm him in any way," she threatened, "I will bite my tongue and kill myself." Inari looked at his mother with tears in his eyes, scared both were going to die. "Maybe bodies will be better," the hat wearing one said as he and his partner rushed up and cut Inari down.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Tsunami screamed, then fainted.

The samurai knew something was off. They enjoyed cutting things up so much that they could tell when their blades bit flesh and when they didn't. A dull clonk and three pieces of wood falling to the ground proved their thoughts right. _'Kawarimi?'_ they thought. A moment later, both were beaten down by a couple Naruto clones. Naruto cancelled his jutsu and freed Tsunami, then tied up the two samurai. He looked at their swords and remembered Yue's broken sword. He then decided against it, remembering what they had used the swords for. _'Yue would never want swords like these ones,'_ he thought as he kicked the blades into the river to rust.

He noticed Inari staring at him, tears streaming down his face. "What?" Naruto asked. "Your going to make fun of me again," Inari said as he furiously wiped at the tears, "you'll call me a crybaby again."

"Why would I make fun of happy tears?" Naruto asked with his 'I don't get it' look, which broke into a sunny smile, "it's okay to cry if you're happy."

Inari wiped his tears away and nodded. "Think you can handle this?" Naruto asked. "Yeah!" Inari cheered. Naruto turned away and started to head in the direction he had come from, but Inari stopped him. "Naruto...the bridge is that way," Inari said as he pointed off to Naruto's right. Naruto smiled, "thanks." He started to go, "it is tough bein' a hero."

"Yeah!" Inari yelled as the ninja ran off. Inari then went back to his place to get ready. It was time to actually do something.

**A/N~**

Can't think of anything to say.

**9 tailed reaper:** No, Yue has fairly large chakra reserves, but something is wrong with her and it is affecting her chakra coils and stamina. Everything concerning Yue, her past and her problems will be explained during what I call the 'time skip filler,' which normally featured how Kakashi got his sharingan from Obito.

The misconception of a chakra control exercise is that it directly increases the level of a shinobi's reserves. In reality, it increases stamina, which is one of the two energies a ninja mixes to create chakra, and focus. The other half is spiritual energy, which can be increased through strength of conviction, focus and faith in the shinobi's own abilities. (Well, I'm guessing that its all that) Either way, Sakura's reserves are low due to her pitiful stamina, which she increases drastically during the time skip.

In Two Demons, Sakura will start boosting her reserves before the time skip, making her a bit stronger in Part II.

**Sky Zephyrus:** Check the Naruko/Ino section. M rating, romance. It's the only one there. I feel sorry for the poor guy who reviewed already...

As to why their aren't any changes from canon is that Yue has had very little impact yet, unless you count that poor tree she just hit. Like I said, the true deviation begins around the Forest of Death.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Battle of Bloods Part 1/Unpredictable Idiot

**Disclaimer: I'm tired of saying this, but I have to or those vampires (lawyers) over there will kill me. I don't own Naruto.**

Sasuke slowly got up. By now, he knew that all his wounds were nowhere near fatal. They might not be able to kill him, but they hurt more than pushing himself to ruin with tree climbing. Just as he got up, another volley of blinding attacks struck him. This time was different though, he could see some of it and he avoided some of the blows.

_'This boy...can he see me?'_ Haku thought. He launched another series of attacks and was surprised when even more of his blows missed.

_'Just a little,'_ Sasuke thought, _'it is only a bit, but I can see it.'_ He kept himself up and waited for the next attack.

At this point, Kakashi was getting worried. Zabuza wasn't attacking. Most likely, he was letting the weakening chakra signature from Sasuke get Kakashi rattled enough so he could deliver a fatal blow. The mist cleared so he could see the ice mirrors again. _'Why...!'_ he saw a number of shuriken fly out of the mist and fly towards Sasuke. He moved to throw his own kunai, but a number of needles struck the shuriken and knocked them down.

"Haku?" Zabuza asked as he, or possibly a bushin, walked out of the mist.

"I want to fight this boy myself, Zabuza-san," Haku said, "allow me this bit of selfishness."

Zabuza regarded his young partner, then sighed, "you are really too soft. So be it." The mist covered everything again.

"I guess it's almost time to finish this," Zabuza said as the sound of his sword being drawn was heard.

"You're right," Kakashi said as he held his kunai up, ready for any blow.

Back in the ice mirrors, Sasuke dodged a blow and almost hit Haku, but the fake hunter jumped out of range and back into another mirror. He moved out again, only his face, and pulled back as a kunai almost hit him. A huge blast of smoke appeared outside of the mirrors and it broke open to reveal Naruto. "NARUTO OF THE LEAF APPEARS!" he yelled out. Kakashi smiled, _'he is the loudest, though I wonder if he is truly a ninja sometimes...'_

Zabuza and Haku both thought of him being the loudest and most unpredictable and they knew it was true.

_'This is good,'_ Sasuke thought as he pulled his sorry self off the ground, _'with my attacks from inside and Naruto's attacks from outside, we can-'_

"Yo!" Naruto said, right in Sasuke's face, "I'm here to save you."

"Idiot!" Sasuke yelled, "why are you in here?"

"I'm saving you, what else?" Naruto said as if it was known to everyone but Sasuke.

"Idiot! A ninja doesn't walk into the middle of an enemy's jutsu," the heir yelled, "forget it! I don't care what happens to you anymore!"

Before the fight could continue, Haku attacked the two ninja from all directions. When it was over, both Naruto and Sasuke were barely able to stand. Another volley of attacks knocked Naruto down and out. Sasuke cursed the slow idiot, then focused on his own survival.

"If I have to," Haku said, "I will cut my heart and kill the two of you."

"What?" Sasuke asked, not understanding.

"I will kill my kind heart and become a true ninja," Haku said, "at that time, you and Naruto will die."

"Don't give up Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yelled, then added, with far less enthusiasm, "you too Naruto."

_'Way too stuck up on him...'_ Zabuza, Kakashi and Haku thought.

"Don't egg them on Sakura," Kakashi warned. She was about to protest when he said, "that boy is already able to kill if he wants to. They aren't ready to kill an opponent on purpose, not yet."

Sasuke attempted to burn the mirrors apart with his fire jutsu, but it didn't work. _'This is a bloodline limit...of course a normal jutsu wouldn't work on it,'_ Sasuke thought. He started to get frustrated. First he couldn't do a thing after all his training, now he was being toyed with. His anger boiled.

Another volley of super fast attacks were launched at Sasuke, but this time there wasn't a single hit. _'What happened?'_ Haku thought as he went to return to his mirror, but a shuriken almost hit him. He made it into another mirror. He looked at the heir and saw the boy's eyes had partially awakened. _'Sharingan,' _Haku thought and started to come up with another strategy. He decided to test the genin's speed and flashed out and attempted to deliver a hard kick to his face, but Sasuke dodged it and almost landed a blow of his own. _'Too fast,'_ Haku thought as he retreated again, _'his eyes can track me now, though it isn't perfect yet.'_

Sasuke was thinking along the same lines as he felt his already depleted chakra being sapped at an alarming rate. _'I can't hold this for too long,'_ he kept his eyes on the fake hunter. _'It seems he can move by projecting himself between mirrors by using their reflections,'_ he thought as he waited for the right moment. Haku didn't attack him, though he did throw needles from almost everywhere. His target was Naruto, and the realization caused Sasuke to cancel out his incomplete sharingan and move to shield the dobe.

Naruto woke up to the sight of a Sasuke pincushion. It wasn't funny though, his teammate was mortally wounded.

"Why?" he asked.

"I don't know either," Sasuke croaked out, "my body just moved on its own..." He tottered for a few moments, "I hate you..." he said as he fell back and was caught by Naruto. "I always thought I would get to my brother before I died..." Sasuke said, clearly delusional, "Naruto...don't die to this guy." Sasuke closed his eyes and was still.

"Right till the end," Haku said from the safety of his mirrors, "he protected you even to the end. He died a true shinobi."

"Shu_**t up!**_**"**

Haku twitched as he felt the sudden, terrible spike of chakra that could only be described as evil. _'What is this?'_ he thought in a panic. He watched the orange-red chakra tear apart the ground in a spiral and then form what appeared to be some kind of demon's head, sort of like Zabuza's demon of the mist. He watched as the wounds on the short ninja's body healed and the needles that were already in him were forced out.

Sakura suddenly felt Sasuke's chakra vanish, then Naruto's...changed. It had always kind of made her think of a gentle, refreshing spring sun (Not that we will ever admit it!) but now it felt...evil, dark...bloodthirsty. A primal fear in her caused her to shake. The fear that gripped her when Kakashi and Zabuza fought the first time was nothing compared to what she felt now. _'What is this?'_ she thought, _'what's happening to you Naruto?'_

Kakashi's mind went into a panic at the familiar feel of the Kyūbi's terrible chakra. _'Did the seal break?'_ he thought as he calmed down and felt it, _'no...It hasn't broken, but the seal isn't working properly anymore.'_ He pulled out a small scroll and cut his thumb with his kunai and drew a trail along the unfurled scroll. "Listen up Zabuza," he said as he formed a seal with the scroll resting on his hands, "I know it isn't your style, but I am going to end this here and now with only two jutsu. Not with copies, but with my own jutsu."

"Oh?" came Zabuza's curious voice, "and how will you do that?"

Back in the mirrors, Haku decided the best way to deal with Naruto was a dash by with needles being thrown into several places that would rob Naruto of movement. He tossed a few needles to mask his attack and moved. Naruto yelled at the needles, knocking them away with a burst of chakra. Haku didn't have time to adjust and abandoned his attack. He then used his mirrors to try to drop on Naruto from above, but Naruto dodged it with ease. _'How is this possible?'_ Haku thought as he tried to move to another mirror, _'changing chakra, gaining this reaction time, this sudden increase in...everything. It isn't possible! Not even bloodlines grant this sort of power!'_

Naruto had obviously gotten bored of Haku and his mirrors since he grabbed Haku's arm and crushed it with inhuman strength. Haku tried to defend himself, but Naruto's chakra enforced fist smashed into his mask and sent him flying through his own mirrors to skid across the ground. His mirrors fell apart as Naruto rushed at the fake hunter's rising form. Haku's mask was falling apart. "Sorry Zabuza-san...I just can't defeat this boy..." Haku said sadly.

Just before Naruto's punch struck, everything faded as if it had never existed. He was back to being a normal genin, no longer an avatar of power and blood lust. "Why? Why for a man like that?" Naruto yelled.

"Because he acknowledged my existence," Haku said, "without him, I am useless."

_'He's like me...'_ Naruto thought, _'but his special person wasn't a kind person like Iruka-sensei.'_

"Please, Naruto-kun, kill me," Haku said, "if I am useless to Zabuza-san, then there is no point in living because his needing me is my life." His look told Naruto there wasn't another way, so the young genin drew his kunai and rushed the other boy.

Zabuza was wondering how Kakashi was going to attack when he heard a rumbling in the ground. He realized it a moment too late when some dogs bit down on him, immobilizing him.

"Say hello to my cute little nin-dogs," Kakashi said with a smile, "I told you the sharingan wasn't my only weapon. I let you cut me so they could track my blood from your weapons. Like how you used your ears, I used their noses."

Zabuza knew that one of the dogs had bit the nerves in his left arm and it wouldn't move for a while. _'He caught me, again,'_ Zabuza thought, then resigned himself to his fate.

Kakashi formed some hand seals, then held one of his hands down as chakra formed around it. Kakashi formed a blade of lightning chakra. _'Visible chakra?'_ Zabuza thought, marvelling at the technique. Kakashi ran at him.

"**Raikiri!"**

"Sorry Naruto-kun," Haku said as he caught Naruto's hand and shoved him away. A mirror formed and Haku jumped into it and his image vanished.

At the last moment, an ice mirror rose from the ground and Haku jumped in the way of Kakashi. The lightning jutsu pierced though his heart and Haku grabbed Kakashi's arm to prevent his retreat. Kakashi tried for a few moments to free himself, then realized Haku was dead and the quick summoning scroll had been damaged, cancelling his jutsu.

"Look at this wonderful opportunity that Haku left me," Zabuza said as he lifted his sword with his remaining good arm, "I guess he was useful in the end."

He swung his sword down, but hit nothing. Kakashi reappeared and lay Haku's corpse on the ground. "You can still move like that even when carrying a useless corpse?" Zabuza said. He rushed the silver haired man and attempted to strike again, but Kakashi dodged and slammed two kunai into Zabuza's good arm, rendering it useless.

"I told you once before," Kakashi said, "you will die."

"False predictions again," Zabuza said.

"He is quiet right."

The ninja all looked to see Gato and his men surrounding them. The vile man had one of his hands in a cast, the one Haku had broken. He walked forward. "This is exactly how I do things," the old man explained, "I have the ninja weaken each other, then I kill them off with numbers."

Zabuza stood a bit taller now, out of his battle stance and looking defeated. "Kakashi...I have no reason to fight you now," Zabuza said as he attempted to leave.

"What is wrong with you?" Naruto yelled.

"Naruto, He is no longer out enemy," Kakashi said.

"He is still my enemy!" Naruto yelled, "Haku loved you! You were his world, you were everything to him! This is how you treat him? Everything he did was for you!"

"Kid," Zabuza said.

"Shut up! I'm not through yet!" Naruto yelled back, "even when fighting us, all he cared about was you and how you acknowledged him! Why the hell did he have to meet you?"

"Kid!" Zabuza said more forcefully.

Naruto stopped and noticed that Zabuza was shaking. "You don't have...to say anymore," Zabuza said as tears trailed down his face.

"Touching," Gato said, "guess even Zabuza is nothing more than a baby devil." He then noticed Haku's body and was about to make his way over and kick it when screams caught his attention.

"What the hell?"

"Where did this runt come from?"

"My arm? Where did it go!"

His men stumbled back as a small girl with twin blades jumped over them and landed just outside of the front line of the mercenaries, then she ran to the leaf genin.

"Yue?" Naruto asked. She nodded and twirled her swords with a smile that revealed her canines. "I got new swords~" she purred with a wide smile.

Gato's eyes widened. "But those...What happened to Keishu and Meshiro? Those are their swords!" Yue smirked. "Those two? They had an 'eye popping' experience."

"Those swords..." Zabuza said as he saw the weapons, he then started to tear up the covering over his mouth. "Kid, Naruto! Can I borrow your kunai?" he asked as he finished.

"Yeah," Naruto said as he tossed it. He really didn't want the weapon since it reminded him of trying to kill a person.

Sakura looked at the swords, wondering what was so important about them. The resembled normal ninjato, though they did have unique features. For Yue's petite body, the blades were larger than regular swords. One was black with a white handle while the other had reversed colors. Both had Yin-Yang symbols for their guards, though only one half on each sword was completed, the other half being a void. The black bladed one possessed the symbol for yang while its twin was marked with yin. The Yang blade was serrated for half the blade while the other sword was smooth edged.

A commotion caused her to look and see Zabuza slaughtering Gato's men with a single kunai held in his mouth. He was getting badly wounded, but it was barely slowing him down. He reached Gato, smiling maniacally. "Let's both go to hell and see if even me, a baby devil can become a real devil!" he said as he swung the blade up and beheaded the old man, making the head ricochet off an exposed beam before it fell into the water. Zabuza fell down, finished. The ninja ran over to him, though Sakura just looked at Naruto.

"Sasuke-kun?" she asked. Naruto looked down and gestured back to where the mirrors had been. She saw the crumpled form of a person and she felt fear prick her heart. Tazuna pulled her over to Sasuke's still body. She sat down next to her crush's body, holding back the tears. "You can cry," Tazuna said. "I studied hard so I could be a ninja and I memorized all the rules...One of them is to not show your emotions," Sakura said as she cried hard.

_'The life of a ninja, it isn't fair for a child,'_ Tazuna thought as he watched the girl cry.

"Gato's dead!" a mercenary yelled, "guess we'll have to take our pay from the village...I wonder how much we can get?" The others started speaking of pillaging the village. To everyone's shock, Yue appeared before that man and sliced his throat with her new swords. As he fell back, his blood stained her hair and she glared at the men, her eyes seemed different. **"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"** she yelled as she flipped her blades into a reverse grip and formed the seals, then performed two more seals, **"heki!"** Three Yues seemed to jump out of her and strike at several of the men with kicks and punches.

Many of the men avoided the sudden attack of midgets and attempted to invade the town, but a bolt stopped them. They looked to see many of the villagers were there to stop them, Inari leading them with a crossbow in hand. Naruto smiled and made eight clones. Kakashi sighed and created at least twenty. With these reinforcements and cloned, crazed midgets slashing/striking at them wildly, the mercenaries dropped their weapons and ran away. Yue halted her attack and dispelled her clones, as did Naruto and Kakashi.

"Kakashi..."

The ninja approached Zabuza, finding him still alive for the moment. "I want to be with Haku," Zabuza said. Kakashi picked him up and carried him over to the other ninja. He placed him next to the boy. "I'm sorry Haku," Zabuza said as he forced his hand to Haku's cheek, "I hope I can go to where you are going." He looked at Naruto and Yue, he opened his mouth to speak when-

"Sasuke-kun! You're alive!" Followed by the pained grunts of the Uchiha as the girl hugged him. Kakashi laughed a bit, as did Zabuza. "Even in the end, you couldn't kill him," Zabuza chuckled.

"Naruto," Zabuza said, "you are definitely in my books, Konoha's Uzamaki Naruto." Naruto smiled and told Zabuza to watch him become the greatest ninja and Hokage ever. Zabuza chuckled at that, though it was accompanied by coughs.

"Yue..." he said, his voice growing weaker, "take my sword, Kubikirihōchō, with you."

"What?" Yue yelped as she quickly looked at the sword, "that isn't possible. I-"

"I would rather hand it to someone like you rather than have some bastard steal it from my grave," Zabuza said with force, then coughed a few times, "take it. I know you can use it."

Yue looked uncertainly at her fellow genin, then walked over to the sword. She gripped the handle and pulled it out of the ground, though she almost dropped it right away. She was barely able to hold it with two hands and couldn't even do anything with it.

"Those two swords she has...Yin and Yang are chakra blades that kill their owner...if both are possessed at the same time...by the...unworthy," Zabuza struggled, he was weakening, "if she can master them, Kubikirihōchō should be easy to master with time." Zabuza smiled as Yue managed to hold it so it could be carried over her shoulder. He looked up and saw snow falling. "Haku...are you crying?" he asked as he closed his eyes for the last time. A single tear rolled down Haku's face and fell into Zabuza's palm.

_[A few days later]_

The group was paying their final respect to Haku and Zabuza's graves. Yue had wrapped the giant blade in a cloth and had rigged some belts to hold it on her back. She swore as she helped bury the two that she would do her best to master the weapon. It was actually amusing to see the girl carrying a weapon larger than her. Yin and Yang were pushed through gaps in the small girl's belts.

"Is what he said true Sensei?" Sakura asked.

"About shinobi being tools?" Kakashi asked. Sakura nodded. "We are," Kakashi said, "but we still have hearts."

"I'll find my own way to be a ninja," Naruto growled.

Kakashi chuckled at that and turned his students to return to their village.

"Naruto!"

They turned to see Inari, trying his best to not cry.

"Inari, you can cry if you want," Naruto said as he too, tried to stop the tears.

"You can cry Naruto, it is alright," Inari assured.

Naruto turned away. "Later," he said, sounding cool. Sakura looked between the two, noticing they were both bawling the same way. _'Are they twin idiots?'_ she thought.

Sakura saw Sasuke and ran a little to catch up with him. "Sasuke-kun! How about we go for a date when we get home?" she asked, hopeful that the recent events would make him realize his love for her.

"Are you kidding? If you have time for dates, try to improve your pathetic skills," the heir said, "you really are worse than Naruto..."

"Shut up Sasuke-teme!" Naruto yelled, "if you want, we can go on a date Sakura-chan."

"No way!" Sakura yelled, stomping closer to Yue. "Boys," Sakura growled.

Yue didn't say anything because she kind of agreed with Sasuke. Sakura really could use a bit..okay, a lot more practice with jutsu and such.

Yue got caught up a bit from her oversized cargo. She pulled it free from a root and rushed to catch up with her team, only to trip on a protruding stone and get caught between the dirt road and the large sword on her back.

"Help~!" she wailed while flailing around pitifully.

Jutsu Index-

**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu - Heki** (Shadow Clone Technique - Burst): A variation of the regular shadow clone technique. Rather than form the clones completely and at a distance, the user creates something like the simple illusion clones from the same space as them and throws them forward as they pump chakra into them to make them completely solid. Normally used for shotgun barrage attacks. Requires good chakra control.

**Thedarkpokemaster:** Hinata isn't the thing keeping Naruto and Sakura apart. In canon, it is Naruto being a baka and thinking that Sakura still wants that asshole Sasuke. That and he has become like Sasuke was in part I, intent on confronting a certain man for his own reasons. Naruto will not be like that in this fic because he will see how it can wreck a person.

**9 tailed reaper:** I can reply because very few reviews are written. I like to acknowledge people for commenting on my work. I also like to answer questions or throw people a curve ball to keep them guessing. I'm surprised nobody has noticed the hints I've dropped all over the story.

Anyway, Kakashi doesn't tell them how he got the Sharingan, Yue does. I can't write omakes all the time. Most omakes will occur while Team 7 is in Konoha or an allied town. They need peace for an omake to work out. Expect some Akatsuki omakes in Part II.

**Mangaka Shuzen:** Yue is not a jinchūriki. She is something that is hated more than those unfortunate enough to be a Jinchūriki. Her 'upbringing' will be fully revealed during the time-skip filler. As for Sakura's attitude to Naruto, she hasn't been straightened out yet. I also said that there will be no real relationships until Part II. Twelve and thirteen is a little too young for anything to really happen.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Nominated for the Exams

**Disclaimer: Kishimoto, not (real name omitted), owns Naruto. Yue and all OCs are mine.**

Naruto and Sasuke had fully recovered after a brief stint in the hospital. They were up and about, back to weeding and catching Mr Kibbles again in no time. Talk about dull.

Other odd things were happening as well. Sakura was a bit different around her male teammates. She was more clingy with Sasuke because he almost died in Wave. She was also a bit nicer to Naruto. The poor idiot didn't know why though. Yue was different as well. She hadn't been with Team 7 for half of their recent missions. She was apparently injured while in Wave as well and the doctors were trying to help her recover properly. The few missions she did participate in, she was slower and weaker, steadily getting worse over time. She also didn't eat nearly as much as before, often saying she was full before vanishing to wherever it was that she went when she left, leaving a kitten to mewl at the team. Sakura had adopted one, a cute black and white kitten with beautiful blue eyes and an adorable meow.

Kakashi had called them this morning, saying that he had a very important announcement for the whole team. So here they were, on time and no Kakashi to be seen.

"The guy will be late for his own funeral," Yue growled weakly. She looked way too pale and thin lately. Sasuke grunted his reply.

"Yeah yeah!" Naruto cheered, "he'll even be late for when I become Hokage!"

Sakura tapped her foot impatiently. "We should put an alarm clock in his bedroom or something," she mused aloud.

"Wouldn't work."

Everyone jumped and spun around to see Kakashi standing behind them, one hand held up in apology. "I saw a cat in a tree and I had to help it down," Kakashi lied lamely. Yue snickered at the stupid lie while everyone else ran a hand down their face. "Anyways, I brought you four here to tell you that I am recommending Team 7 for the Chūnin Selection Exam that are coming up, which are conveniently being held here in Konoha," Kakashi said as he held out some papers, "just fill out these forms and report to the room that is listed if you wish to take the exam."

Sakura looked the paper over and noted the date of the exam. "The exam starts in an hour! Why did you wait so long!" she shouted.

Yue found a more pressing matter when the form was held out for her. "Why am I getting one of these? Didn't I get reinstated yet?"

Kakashi tapped his fist into his palm, classic 'I just remembered' pose. "I almost forgot about that." He handed Yue a scroll, which had been delivered to him six days ago. Yue growled about slow, perverted jōnin as she opened it up. She gave it the once over and took a title from two people in one shot. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" she screamed loud enough to drown out both Kiba and Ino on their best days.

Congratulations Kazeneko Yue, you are now the second loudest ninja in Konoha.

Sakura got over the ringing in her ears quickest and took the scroll. She read it out loud for the others.

"Kazeneko Yue. It is by unanimous decision of the council that you are to be fully reinstated as a kunoichi of Konohagakure, but as a genin rather than your former rank of tokubetsu jōnin. Rather than hold one of your talents back for the standard probationary year, we have decided to allow you to participate in this year's chūnin selection exams. We fully expect you to perform well enough to be promoted to chūnin, along with any who also shows the ability and capacity to become chūnin. After the exams, if you do indeed pass, we will contact you about the jōnin exam.

Signed,

Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage."

The rest of the team looked at Yue, wondering how they would react to being demoted.

A stream of obscenities were spat from Yue's mouth as she repeatedly kicked a post for the bridge. Most of her anger was directed at the council. The bridge would need a new post when, and if, she finished.

Yue finished the post off with a kick, cracking it and hurting her foot.

"Well, if you do decide to take part in the exam, meet me outside the room marked on the page," Kakashi said as he shunshined away. Sasuke took off, as did Naruto. Yue rushed after them, yelling at them to slow down a little.

_'Are we ready for this? Am I ready?'_ Sakura thought as she sifted through the memories of what they had accomplished. Wave was mostly Kakashi, though Naruto and Sasuke had done some things a normal genin shouldn't be able to do. What did Sakura manage in that time? She learned how to climb a tree with chakra and she got to taste a hint of what it would be like to lose someone important to her. Add into the mix that Kakashi wouldn't help them during the test and Yue's declining abilities, it didn't help her confidence in whether or not she was strong or skilled enough to even enter the exams. She was no better than an academy student, even Naruto knew advanced jutsu. She was the weakest link in team 7.

"What!" Yue said as she crawled between Sakura's legs from behind, getting a squeal of surprise as Naruto and Sasuke came back to see what was happening. "Is!" Yue growled as she suddenly stood up, using her above average strength to knock Sakura off balance. "Wrong with you?" Yue finished as she quickly adjusted herself to catch Sakura on her back, hands under the taller girl's thighs. It was a piggyback ride.

"Noooooo!" Sakura wailed in embarrassment as she lightly hit Yue's shoulder. She didn't want to be carried around by Yue. She wanted Sasuke to carry her! Naruto blushed at the cute noises his crush was making while Sasuke just grunted.

"Shut up!" Yue snapped, "you know all of us are useless at genjutsu without you. Also, we're lucky to have a full brain between the three of us without you around." Sakura's blush vanished as she looked at the top of Yue's head. Her gaze then shifted to Naruto, who was smiling at her in his usual fashion. Sasuke scratched at his cheek as he looked away while blushing lightly, not wanting to admit that the eldest member of the group had (partially, in his mind) spoken the truth. Sakura smiled, happy that her team would support her like this.

"Yue..." Sakura said quietly.

"Yes?" the child-like teenager asked.

"Put me down?" Sakura pleaded.

"No~" Yue chimed and started walking, not listening to Sakura's protests and wails. Naruto listened, the blush on his face never leaving. He decided right then and there: Sakura's embarrassed voice was extremely cute.

Sakura continued to be carried, her strength proving to be nothing in the face of Yue's. They climbed the stairs and came upon an interesting scene.

In front of the room they had to go to was a pair of rough looking genin who were just finishing beating on a green spandex wearing genin. He had black hair was bowl cut and he wore bandages on his arms. He had round eyes and...!

_'OH MY GOD! ARE THOSE CENTIPEDES ABOVE HIS EYES!'_ Naruto and Sakura mentally screamed as they saw the young man's thick eye brows. Yue turned as white as a ghost when she noticed his jumpsuit and hairstyle.

"Weaklings like you should give up!" the genin with a pair of giant kunai on his back said as he kicked a girl wearing a Chinese outfit in the shoulder.

"What the hell are you doing?" Naruto shouted.

"What does it look like?" the other asked, "we are just weeding out the losers who will just take up space."

The other chuckled. "We've gone through this exam a few times and we know you aren't worth the time since we have failed time and again. If we are stronger than you, that means you have no hope of passing."

Sasuke turned around and went to the stairs.

"H-hey!" the kunai wielder yelled after the heir, "where are you going?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to the room we need to go to for the test," Sasuke explained before leaving.

Sakura smiled from her position on Yue's back. "Anyone can see through that pitiful genjutsu."

"Yeah! This is the second floor! We need to go to the third floor!" Naruto cheered as he ran up the stairs.

Yue blinked and stared hard at the sign. "But it says..."

Sakura poked the smaller girl's cheek. "Trust me, genjutsu baka, we need to go upstairs." The smaller girl complied and went up the stairs while the other genin followed them.

Once everyone had left, the two genin were consumed in a cloud of smoke to reveal a pair of chūnin, the genjutsu on the door sign fading away. "Well damn. Leave it to Kakashi to train some monsters," one said to the other, "of course, he has a real monster on his team."

"This year is going to be a lot of fun," the other said before they vanished into the shadows.

Team 7 was making their way to the exam room when they were interrupted.

"Uchiha Sasuke! I challenge you!"

They all looked up to see centipede brows standing on a railing. He then jumped over the edge before vanishing and reappearing on the ground.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked, wondering how someone could move at that speed.

The boy struck a pose. "I am Rock Lee! Konoha's Beautiful Green Wild Beast and the strongest of Konohagakure's genin!" he proclaimed with a smile that emitted a tiny sparkle.

Yue freaked out. "I know that introduction style," she whimpered as she let Sakura's feet fall to the floor. "Yue?" the pink haired girl enquired as Yue got behind her and cowered in fear.

Lee noticed Sakura and his face lit up with a blush. "Sakura-san! Tales of your beauty pale in comparison to the real thing! My love for you is as undying as the Flames of Youth that burn within my heart! Let's go out after the exam!" he proclaimed loudly.

"No. Way. In. Hell," Sakura stated bluntly, "You're so lame you make Naruto look awesome."

The boy crumpled under the extreme insult, but came back alive in no time. He winked at Sakura and blew a kiss in her direction. Sakura dodged the 'attack' by falling backwards and banging her head on the ground, almost crushing Yue under her. "Stop throwing dangerous things at me!" she yelled at the boy.

Lee didn't get to say anything in response because Sasuke appeared behind him and attempted to smash the boy over the head with his left hand. To everyone's surprise, Lee vanished and appeared next to Sasuke with his foot raised. Sasuke dodged it and attempted to grab Lee's leg, but the green clad boy twisted in mid air and swung his other leg into Sasuke's face, barely missing. Before Sasuke could regain his balance, Lee flew in with a third kick to the base of his jaw and sent him flying backwards.

_'What the hell is with this speed?'_ Sasuke thought as his incomplete sharingan proved worthless during the whole encounter, _'I can't track him.'_

"That's right, Sasuke. Your sharingan can't track my pure taijutsu," Lee said as he appeared underneath Sasuke, the bandages on his arms loose and fluttering underneath him. Before he got the chance to attack, Yue appeared underneath him and grabbed the collar of his jumpsuit, tossing him away to a wall as she briefly turned into a tornado of dark colors. Sakura caught Sasuke before he hit the ground.

_'So fast!'_ Sasuke thought as he watched Lee fly at the wall, his gaze shifted to Yue as she wound down the spin to crouch on the ground, _'her too. They were both faster than even Kakashi.'_

Before Lee met the wall, a blast of smoke appeared and an older, even bushier browed version of Lee appeared to stop him from slamming into the wall. Once Lee was safely down, the man struck a pose. "So much YOUTH!" he boomed.

Three genin from Team 7, those being Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura, were freaked out that his eyes brows could be so thick. Yue was staying completely still after having tossed Lee away. She was sweating a lot and looked scared out of her mind.

"Lee-kun! You know that jutsu is forbidden!" ultra mega brows said as he pointed at the boy.

"B-but Guy-sensei! I wasn't going to use the other one!" Lee protested.

"No excuses!" the man, Guy, shouted, "now accept your punishment!"

Lee nodded just before Guy slapped him...with a glowing hand! Both were crying while staring at each other. "I'm sorry Guy-sensei!" Lee warbled. "It is alright, Lee-kun! It was the Flames of Youth burning brightly within you!" Guy said as tears streaked down his face. The two went back and forth with each others names, then hugged, freaking out everyone present. Sasuke couldn't believe he had lost to Lee and was tempted to ask Sakura to kick his ass since he could save more dignity with that loss. "It's good that my eternal rival, Kakashi, was there to stop you from using that technique," Guy said after the creepy moment with his student that everyone wanted permanently erased from existence.

"Uh," Naruto said as Yue's eyes pleaded no, "that wasn't Kakashi-sensei. "

"What?" Guy shouted, "only three people have ever managed to learn my techniques so well! If it wasn't Kakashi or Lee-kun, then it must have been..." His eyes locked on Yue, who dropped the statue act and tried to scramble away on all fours, panicking. Guy appeared behind her and lifted her up by the back of her jacket, causing the poor girl to flail around like a naughty kitten on its scruff. "I knew I sensed you nearby," Guy said as he turned Yue to face him, "it is good to see you again, Yue-kun."

Yue was engulfed in a burst of smoke. When it cleared, Guy was holding a black kitten up by its scruff. It gave off a loud "nyaa!" before scratching his hand to free itself. Guy blinked, then chuckled. "That is just like the youthful Yue-kun I know, always substituting herself with a cute kitten when she isn't in any danger."

"Guy-sensei! It is time to go," a black haired boy with pale skin called down. When Team 7 saw his eyes, they knew he was a Hyūga. A girl with brown hair tied into buns on either side of her head was standing next to him. Guy shinshined up to them, signalling Lee to follow.

"Sasuke. I must apologize. I lied when I said I was the strongest genin in Konoha. It is likely that he is on my team though." With that warning, Lee left to catch up to his team.

"Are they gone yet?" Yue asked as she peeked out from behind a small potted tree.

_[Exam room]_

Sakura was relieved and angry all at once. Kakashi hadn't bothered telling them that full teams were required to participate in the exams. When Sakura had mentioned Yue taking her place, Kakashi said that the small ninja was part of the exams regardless of Team 7's participation, she would have just been placed on another Konoha team. She didn't get a chance to ponder this because they went into the room and she had to restrain herself from trying to kill Ino. The blonde pig was all over HER Sasuke-kun after all. Yue pulled Ino off Sasuke and acted as an anti-Ino barrier. Sasuke silently thanked her.

"Wow, looks like all the graduates are here," Kiba said as he walked up. With the nine graduates of their year present, it meant that rookie genin were part of the exams. This was incredibly rare too.

"So, you ready to drop out in the first part, Naruto?" Kiba asked, grinning. He was surprised that Naruto even bothered to show up. He was probably forced to by the Uchiha prick.

Before any more conversation could happen, a trio of Suna ninja shoved through the Konoha ninja. "Out of my way," the redhead, probably the leader, muttered, "I have no time for weaklings."

Kiba started growling, as did Akamaru. "Who are you calling a weakling!" he barked.

"Stop," Yue commanded as she put her arm in Kiba's way, "he is far stronger than you."

The redhead glared down at Yue for a few moments. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Kazeneko Yue of the Ruuko clan," Yue stated as she glared right back into his eyes, not flinching or looking away at all.

The redhead's eyes widened slightly at her introduction and unwavering gaze. "That clan...so that is why I smell so much blood on you... I am Garra," he greeted, "I look forward to killing you."

"As if she is worth your time," Sasuke muttered as he glared at the redhead. Garra looked at him and saw the clan outfit of the Uchiha. "An Uchiha? I will use you to prove my existence as well." He glanced at his teammates, who flinched. They all walked away to take seats of their own.

"Why the hell are so many people interested in you?" Sasuke asked while frowning.

"Because I'm adorable and I should have my own line of plushies?" Yue offered with an innocent smile.

"More like you are one of Konoha's more notorious tokubetsu jōnin, Kazeneko Yue-san. Or would Konoha's Feral Feline suit your tastes better?" a young man with grey hair and glasses asked as he walked up to them. Yue's glare was only seen by Sasuke and it sent a shiver down his spine. So much blood lust and hatred. It was like someone who looked exactly like Yue had taken her place, someone with a violent streak that would have robbed Zabuza of his will to fight.

"I have gathered data on all the ninja gathered for the chūnin exams and I am willing to share it with you if you wish," the boy stated as he pulled out a deck of cards.

"And what is the price, multiple time failure, Yakushi Kabuto?" Yue asked with an edge of anger.

Kabuto grinned gently. "No price whatsoever."

"Garra, Rock Lee and Hyūga Neji," Sasuke stated. Knowledge was power and three of his five targets were almost completely unknown to him.

Kabuto drew the cards and activated one. "Hmm. Rock Lee graduated the academy with almost non-existent skill in genjutsu and ninjutsu, still non-existent too. He had adequate taijutsu, which he has improved drastically. He may be difficult to face in a close range battle." He activated the next card. "Hyūga Neji is a member of the Hyūga's branch family, but seems to be as talented as a main house member. I can't say too much about his abilities other than saying that he is also someone you don't want to get too close either." He activated the final card, which was almost blank. "Garra from Suna. All high rank missions, but no data on his abilities. One interesting fact is that he has always returned to his village without a single scratch on him. He may have some powerful defensive jutsu."

"One more," Sasuke said, "Kazeneko Yue."

Kabuto drew out the card and activated it. Unlike the others, there was no picture of the petite ninja. A glance down made Sakura pale. Yue had high end skills in taijutsu and ninjutsu. She also had high speed, strength and a decent stamina rating. Her missions were scattered, most being B or A-ranked missions. She had three S-rank missions listed, one being a failure. What made it worse was all the information was almost two years old.

"Kazeneko Yue, tokubetsu jōnin. Alias is Feral Feline. Specialist in close range combat with taijutsu and kenjutsu. A total moron with genjutsu. She also possesses a few powerful katon and raiton. Disappeared after a botched mission about almost two years ago," Kabuto then looked at the girl herself, "I wonder why you are here though."

Yue didn't give him a reply, just stomped away and sat down. She didn't want them to find out about her past if she could help it. She knew it would probably come out sooner or later, but not during a chūnin selection exam that she had to participate in. She could feel a number of people glaring at her, planning on taking her out as quickly as possible if they got the chance. Too bad she had been demoted and weakened. She was probably about mid-chūnin now, if she was lucky.

A man walked in and stood at the front of the room. "Sit down you meat bags!" he shouted. Once everyone was seated, he continued. "I am Morino Ibiki, the proctor for the first part of the chūnin exams. Welcome to one of the worst days in your life."

Sweat drops all around! A few shivers here and there too. Of course, a few people (Sasuke, Neji, Garra, Yue and Shino) showed no reaction to the man's words.

Ibiki then explained the rules and what was expected of the examinees. Yue knew she and Naruto were dead meat. Now Yue would admit she had her share of bright ideas every once in a while, but the things that slid around in her head the rest of the time were quite dim. Naruto wasn't much better. She had already deduced (_a word that made her brain hurt a bit_) that this was a test to see their information gathering skills. There was a fundamental (_more pain_) problem with that.

Both her and Naruto were pure combat types, meaning they were complete morons when it came to the more intricate (_Warning! Brain death occurring!_) stealth techniques a ninja had access to.

It was so much simpler when she entered the exams the second time at Kirigakure. All she had to do was last for five minutes against a chūnin in combat. That was how she became a chūnin. Didn't even take two weeks after that for her to become a tokubetsu jōnin. The only thing that had held her back was her inability to pass a written test. She was that dumb.

When Ibiki told them to start, Yue dropped her head onto her paper, not even bothering to flip it over. It would hurt to look at the strange language and the heavy code that it had been written in. She knew that she would be lucky to get one right. Instead of causing her brain unnecessary destruction, she glanced at her teammates.

Sakura was writing like a woman possessed. Exactly what Yue expected from a person with a library in their head. How could a person have so much in their head and not have their brain explode?

Sasuke had figured out what was going on and used his sharingan to copy a man's motions. The bastard was getting by with minimal work, just like most of his clan before him. Looking at the victim of the Uchiha, Yue noted he was far too relaxed for a person who was trying to pass the test. A chūnin in disguise...

A glance at Naruto almost had Yue laughing her ass off. The expression on his face was hilarious. His eyes were wide and his lips were pursed in confusion. Yue knew that he couldn't make heads or tails of the strange script on the paper before him either. Then again, his brain might be able to work some of it out that she couldn't. All she could read was the place she put her name and the tenth question. She decided to lay everything on the line with that one question. That left her with a great option that she loved.

Nap time!

_[Forty minutes later]_

Thunk!

"I'M AWAKE!" Yue shouted as she jumped up. When she noticed all the chūnin (who weren't convenient targets for information theft) staring at her, she looked and noticed the person sitting next to her had been eliminated. A kunai stuck out of the girl's paper. That is what had awakened her. She chuckled nervously and sat down again. No way she could fall asleep again after that.

The next minute was so boring that Yue picked up her pencil and started drawing plans for weapons on the back. By taking the basic design of the demon brothers' gauntlets, which she 'borrowed' after their defeat, she could strip most of the metal off, since it was just for show, rig a better device to bring in the bladed chain. She could also reshape the claws, making them smaller. Oh! Maybe a poison delivery system for the nails and chain. Hmm. No, the chain would be too difficult. Maybe a Senbon launcher... A better chain design was in order. Maybe making normal rings for the chain, but have the edges razor sharp. To heck with it, she would just make a whole new set of gauntlets based off the original concept, maybe keep the originals as trophies. That or she could do something with them later. Now to draw the basic design and-

"Drop your pencils!" Ibiki bellowed. Yue accidentally snapped her pencil in two. She glared at the man with all her anger, making the man shiver for a moment, before she remembered what was going on. She had completely forgotten she was taking an exam.

"Before I ask the final question, I must warn you of a few things," he said, "first, the nine questions you have already sweat, bled and cried over are now meaningless."

Murmurs were heard around the leftover genin. Yue felt happy that she didn't bother with the written work.

"If you decide to take this question, be prepared. Answering wrong will not only cause you and your team to fail, but you will not be allowed to attend another chūnin exam ever again." With this, Ibiki inwardly smirked at the panicked looks that many genin were shooting around at each other. Unlike a certain woman he knew, he preferred to see them sweat, not bleed and die.

Yue was interested in this. "Hey Morino!" she shouted to get his attention. The look of recognition on his face was something Yue wished she could photograph it. Seeing Ibiki with his eyes wide and his jaw hanging open slightly in surprise was seen as often as Naruto getting trained by Kakashi. "How are they going to become chūnin if they can't enter another chūnin exam?"

Many of the genin wondered that as well. "It's simple; they don't," Ibiki stated with a dismissive shrug. Now the genin were sweating so hard that there would be rivers in the room if they stayed for about an hour.

It started.

"I quit!" a genin shouted as he got up and stalked out of the room. His two teammates quickly followed. With that, the floodgates were opened and genin teams were leaving in droves. What started as a room filled with at least sixty genin, which got reduced during the first part of the test, had been whittled down to about thirty or so. Without her proper sense range, it was difficult for Yue to tell.

Thankfully, she could barely smell that dog and his puppy.

SLAM!

"Bring it on!" Naruto challenged.

Once more, Ibiki stared at the second surprise of the day. "I don't care what you do or say. You cannot, will not stop me from becoming Hokage! Fail me if you will, but remember that I will be your leader one day!" Naruto declared.

All hesitation and worry was blown away. For Naruto's former classmates, it was a relief to hear that Naruto was still firing his dream around like it was possible. Then again, none wanted to hear him cheering about getting to the next part when they had chickened out. He did have Sasuke and Sakura on his team after all. From what had been seen so far, Yue was as dumb and useless as Naruto. Three people knew better though, having born witness to the girl's capabilities.

For those from outside of Konoha, they just wanted to either see Naruto squirm or make him squirm during the next test. Plain and simple, they wanted to see the loud ass genin get beat.

Ibiki stared at the group. He was thoroughly surprised. Not a single one looked ready to leave now. "You all pass," he said.

"WHAT?" Naruto, Ino and Yue shouted/shrieked.

Ibiki rubbed his right ear, deciding to hunt the three down later so he could record their shrieks. They would be excellent tools for interrogations. "The tenth question was a test of your resolve," Ibiki explained, "I take it that all of you noticed that the first nine questions were there to show us how good your information gathering skills are, which is a must with any chūnin on a mission. Chūnin will also be entrusted with making difficult decisions under stress, which is what the tenth question represented. Of course, the result of your decisions could be a successful mission or your name appearing on the memorial stone along with your team." Ibiki let that sink in before trying to tell them about the next part of the test.

Operative word: trying!

SMASH!

Everyone looked in shock as a brown bundle flew through a window before it unfurled with four kunai, revealing that it was actually a banner with writing on it.

Mitarashi Anko

Tokubetsu Jōnin

I love Dango

"I'm Mitarashi Anko!" she shouted, "prepare to go through Hell!"

**A/N~**

I absolutely love Anko's first appearance in the series. She is one of my top four favourite characters in the series. In terms of female characters, she's number 2, right after Ino.

**!Omake!**

**What the heck is this!**

Ibiki had marvelled at Naruto's blank test and went over to see Yue's.

Pure white. Not even her name was written down.

He chuckled to himself and looked at the back.

...!

What was written on the back was rough schematics for several different weapon designs. He noted the calculations scattered around and looked at the front of the paper to examine the math question.

"What the hell? The math on the back is several levels above this one," he scratched at his chin, "how smart is that little baka?"

He decided to get someone really smart to try and figure that out later.

**Kuro-Ookami4:** Hai? I don't know what that review means at all.

**Sky Zephyrus:** Yue isn't even nearly done teaching them things.

**Thedarkpokemaster:** Unlike Sasuke, Naruto wants to bring his target back alive. And I can't spoil anymore. Honestly, I was praying that Sasuke died in that episode/chapter. The little bastard was a prick from day one. And there will be ten Akatsuki members, but not for too long.

**9 tailed reaper:** Yue's little accident has something to do with her missing chakra. Remember how messed up Naruto was when Hebi-homo felt him up? Missing chakra makes it hard for a ninja to function properly. Think of it as chakra withdrawal.

Also, it is _decapitating carving knife_, not head chopper. And that ability was to harvest the iron in a human being's blood (hemoglobin) to reform the sword. I always wondered why they left the weapon behind. They were just begging to have it stolen. Oh, it will have it. I'm not removing powers and such from canon.

**SuperNeos2:** Don't worry about not reviewing the earlier chapters. I find that the later chapters are better. Besides, I doubt anyone will review them anyways.

**TwinTech 2:** Wish granted!

**All:** Chapter would have been posted sooner, but I was working on chapter 16 of this story. It's coming along well. Next chapter reveals Yue's secret. Well, one of them anyways.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Snakes, secrets and forests

**Disclaimer: I only own OCs, nothing else.**

Everyone sweat dropped at the grown woman's surprisingly childish antics.

_'She is so...Naruto-ish,'_ Sakura thought as her right eye twitched slightly in disbelief and annoyance. If she knew that the ninja world was filled with weirdos like Naruto, Kakashi, Lee, Guy and this Anko woman, she would have become something else!

At least Sasuke-kun was normal!

Before anything could be said, two crashes were heard. Everyone turned to look at the spot that had once been owned by a demoted kunoichi, seeing the spot vacant now. Anko proved to be quickest and picked up the fallen girl.

"You bad kitty," Anko said with a feral grin when she saw who she was holding up.

"H-hi Anko-s-sensei," Yue stammered as she waved.

Naruto, Sakura, and to a lesser extent, Sasuke were shocked. Yue's former sensei was this dango loving nutjob.

"You never wrote," Anko fake sobbed, "you didn't even come to visit me when they let you out."

"S-sorry sensei," Yue apologized, "but they put me on a team with-"

"You didn't even tell me, your wife, that you had been released from prison," Anko whined.

"Sorry, sensei. I- Wait, what do you mean by wife?" Yue asked as she started sweating. At that, Anko grinned devilishly before engulfing Yue in a hug, making sure to force the girl's face into her chest.

_'I want to go there too,'_ Ibiki, a few chūnin, Kiba and Choji thought as they watched Yue get smothered into a 'happy' death. They were quickly reminded, or shown, why they would never want to do that with Anko.

"Let's see if you're still good!" Anko cheered, pushing hopes up. Even Shikamaru was keeping an ear perked for something mildly interesting.

"A-Anko-sensei!" Yue cried out.

"You know you like it!" Anko cheered gleefully.

Shikamaru heard Yue panting and moaning. He couldn't resist anymore and turned to see what was going on.

_'What a drag,'_ he thought as he turned away. The crazy woman had cut Yue's neck near her jaw line and was licking it to get at the blood. Crazy, troublesome woman. Yet another reason to not marry a kunoichi. He needed to find a nice, civilian girl. With any luck, she won't be like his mother.

Despite the visual, the audio was enough to give a few guys 'material' for later. They had imaginations and they were men. That was all they needed.

Had anyone paid attention, they would have seen that Anko pouted as Yue's cut sealed itself. It had been a safely deep cut too.

"Okay," the purple haired woman huffed, "enough fun for now. I expect you all at the next part of the exam in forty minutes!" She then grabbed her banner, placed Yue on her shoulder, and flew out an unbroken window.

"Seeeeseeeii!" the poor kunoichi wailed as they plummeted four stories.

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were all thinking the same thing: _'she kidnapped our teammate...and broke another window.'_

Ibiki sighed. "She always does this," he mumbled. "Listen up! The chūnin in here have maps to the next stage! Make sure to get one unless you want that psycho hunting you down because you didn't let her hear you scream to death!" he shouted. The genin teams got their maps and took off for the forest at top speed, not wanting to have the woman looking for them.

_[Thirty minutes later, Forest of Death]_

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were all standing near Yue, who was sitting on the ground, hugging her legs to her chest while rocking herself. "She wanted to send me in there with only one kunai, one kunai," she mumbled, "a hundred kunai isn't nearly enough..."

That message got a few people shivering. More than a couple teams wondered if they would leave the forest under their own power.

"Yue-chan! Don't go spoiling all my fun!" Anko shouted at her former student. The purple haired woman then measured up the group. "What the hell? Ibiki is losing it if this many made it through!" she grinned sadistically, "no matter, this forest will cut you guys in half, if any make it out." Once she was sure every genin was present, she continued. She explained the test and everything that it entailed. Basically, it was a free for all between the teams and various denizens of the Forest of Death, also known as Anko's vacation spot. The target of the battles was one of two scrolls, Heaven and Earth. When a team possessed both scrolls, they were to make it to the tower in the center. The teams were not to look at the contents of the scrolls unless they wanted instant elimination. Lethal force was allowed and expected if one was to make it through the forest alive.

When Yue, freshly recovered from her trauma, heard that last one, she smiled as her fingers ghosted over Yin and Yang's handles. The chakra ninjato had new sheathes that were set so the blades were on her left hip. Yue also checked to see if she had enough kunai and shuriken, then remembered there was no such thing as enough with that forest. The other genin, minus the Suna team, also checked their gear. Of course, Shikamaru figured it was too troublesome to check.

"One last rule," Anko called out, "when you die, scream veeery loud so I can hear it!" She then laughed and started walking away.

"Crazy," Naruto mumbled. A kunai flew by his check, cutting it slightly. Before he could react, Anko was behind him and holding his shoulders as she set her head next to his. "ones like you die fast, spilling lots of your tasty blood all over the forest," she said before licking at the cut. To his shock, a kunai flew out of her sleeve and into her hand as she swung her left arm back.

"Your kunai," a kusa-nin said around her long tongue as she held the blade out for its owner to take.

"Thanks," Anko said as she took the throwing knife, "but do that again and I might kill you."

"I will keep that in mind," the grass kunoichi said as she backed off. With her fun passed, Anko noogied Yue and then walked off, complaining that Yue wasn't as sensitive anymore. Team 7 joined the line.

"Hey Uchiha!" Yue snapped, "who the hell appointed you grand poo-bah of Team 7?"

He glanced back slightly, "I am the most powerful as well as the most-"

"If you are about to say that you are the most experienced, then I suggest you shut up before you make yourself look like an idiot," Yue shot back.

"Yue!" Sakura hissed back, "stop being mean to Sasuke-kun!"

"Sakura," Sasuke whispered to his fan-girl, sky rocketing her hopes, "shut up."

"B-but she-" Sakura sputtered.

"Is right," Sasuke finished, "she was a tokubetsu jōnin before, meaning that she has much more experience than all three of us combined and doubled."

Yue smirked. "I'll let you have the most powerful title for now, but be ready to lose it as soon as we are done with this forest."

Sasuke's eyebrow rose slightly. "You saying you will surpass me?"

"Who said I was the only one in this team with high potential?" she asked mockingly.

"I already know that I have high potential," Sasuke stated.

"Che! For all the powers of the Sharingan, it won't cure your inability to see past your own nose," Yue scoffed, "you'll see soon enough."

Sasuke was going to continue on, but they had reached the head of the line. They went in and received an Earth scroll. They placed the scroll into a satchel they were given to hold the scrolls and left for gate 14.

After about twenty minutes, Anko walked up. "I get to send off the two who I so want to hear scream," she said, "maybe pinky is a screamer too..."

Sasuke grunted, Sakura gulped, Naruto grinned and Yue placed her left hand on Yang's handle and held three of her odd kunai in the other. All were waiting for the start signal.

BEEEEEEPPP!

The gate swung open.

"Go!" Anko commanded.

The three genin flew through the door, all ready for battle. The gate slammed shut behind them.

_[An hour later]_

_'Holy shit!'_

That was what the three green genin were thinking as Yue had finished dragged Yang out of the chest of the panther that had attacked them. They had helped as well, after the initial shock wore off, but the beast seemed to be used to dealing with ninja of a higher level than them, proving to be a black ghost that slid around their weapons and taijutsu.

"D-damn!" Naruto gasped as the adrenaline wore off, "what the hell is this forest?"

Yue was panting and holding her left shoulder, which had been clawed slightly. "Don't let your damn guard down!" she snapped.

"Y-yeah Naruto!" Sakura panted.

"I was talking about all three of you!" Yue snapped, "If I weren't here, you would have been some of the first casualties!" A scream was heard, which was joined almost instantly by two more. Yue straightened herself and then rushed up a tree. "Come on! It should be safer up here!" she called down. The others followed, Sasuke grumbling about Yue taking over. "Stop bitching at me, Uchiha," Yue growled, "you think you can lead us when this is your first fucking time in here? I was trained by Anko-sensei, so that means I know this place quite well." She then sighed and calmed herself. "Look, I'll just help with navigation and avoiding everything in here that can eat your ass off, so deal with my input or die."

Sasuke just huffed and took off in a random direction, making sure to not go towards the gate again.

_[Day two]_

Sasuke was now genuinely happy the team had a guide. The forest was a maze and he swore it had natural genjutsu in places that even his sharingan couldn't pierce. They had recently passed by a team of genin who had fallen into a sink hole, falling to break a number of bones. To make matters worse, some sort of insects had gnawed on them a bit. They were, of course, dead.

"No scroll," Yue said as she came back up, "most likely chewed up with one of those poor bastards or taken away by another team."

Sakura frowned at her teammate. "Yue," she called, "why did you suddenly change when we came into the forest?"

"Hai?" Yue gaped, revealing some of the old her.

"You're...serious. And you curse a lot now..." Sakura pointed out.

Yue frowned, looking closer to her true age as she looked up. "We are in danger here, so fucking around is foolish," she then looked at Sakura with a smile, "besides, my sensei was Anko. Be happy I didn't pick up her fashion sense or tastes..."

The three shuddered, imagining if Yue had worn a fishnet outfit with only a trench coat and a shorts to hide anything, running around cutting people for a few licks of blood.

"Of course," Yue continued, "I did pick up her love of dango, sadistic nature and her tool usage skills."

"Tool usage?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah. She is the only person I know who uses dango sticks as senbon," Yue said, "come on, we need to find a scroll and get to the tower as soon as possible."

Sasuke took off towards the east, hoping to find another team with a scroll.

_[Day three]_

"I don't believe this," Naruto complained, "we haven't seen a single living team yet."

Sasuke grunted. "Yeah. I figured we would have run into at least one by now."

Yue was about to respond when she tensed and drew both her swords. "Careful what you wish for," she whispered as she stepped back, fading into the leaves.

"Y-Yue?" Sakura called, suddenly scared. Yue had stuck with them the whole time they were in the forest, not straying too far from them. From what she had told them so far, this place was very deadly when it was at its safest.

Nothing happened and the team waited. A little too long in Naruto's case.

"I need to take a leak," Naruto mumbled as he walked over to a bush and made to do the deed right there and then.

"You pervert!" Sakura snapped as she whacked Naruto's head, "don't do such vulgar things in front of a lady!"

"What lady?" Naruto asked, then ran when he saw Sakura's face.

The two waited for both of their teammates now. "Where did Yue go?" Sakura asked.

"Ahh, much better," Naruto sighed as he walked up.

"Geez! Yue left us behind, so we got to stick together!" Sakura lectured.

"Sorry Sakura," Naruto chuckled.

Without warning, Sasuke punched Naruto in the side of the head, sending the blonde rolling away.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted, "I know Naruto is annoying and rude, but that was too much!"

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked Naruto.

Naruto was enveloped in smoke, becoming an Ame-nin. "How did you know?" he asked.

"Naruto always calls her Sakura-chan," Sasuke informed the ninja as he pointed at Sakura, "he is also right handed and has a scratch on his cheek from where the examiner cut him." He then sighed, "I never thought I would meet someone who was worse than Naruto when it came to henge."

"Whatever!" the Ame-nin roared as he drew a kunai and charged at the heir.

Nearby, Yue watched from a branch as the Ame-nin's teammates groaned from the little surprise attack she had sprung on them. "That is what you get for hiding so pathetically," she whispered back to them as she kicked at the pile of ninja, sending them to the forest floor. "Now Naruto, let's see what the Yondaime gave you through his genes," she whispered to herself, "and what that fox has given you as well."

As the fight progressed, Yue became increasingly bored. It was all Sasuke and very little Naruto once he woke up. All Naruto did was toss Sasuke a kunai, allowing the black haired genin to kill the enemy ninja by driving the weapon into his spine.

"Hmph. I don't care about what your parents gave you," Yue mumbled at the Uchiha from her perch, "I should go back now." She then sighed and went to meet up with her team. "Hey gu-!" she called, then swung Yang up to deflect Sasuke's bloody kunai. "What the fuck is your problem, Uchiha!"

"Say something that proves you are the real Yue," he ordered.

"You are ordering me around?" she shot back. Sasuke drew a couple kunai and got ready to throw them. "You emo, jutsu stealing prick! Just because half the village is lost with their noses up your ass doesn't give you the right to threaten or order me around!" she roared.

"I think that is the real Yue," Naruto deadpanned, "either that or a really angry and henged Anko-san." Naruto didn't even get a chance to dodge the kunai that flashed by his cheek, reopening his cut cheek perfectly. "Yep, that's Yue alright," he declared.

"How do you know?" Sasuke asked as Naruto walked to the tree that the blade had hit, "that nutjob loves cutting your cheek."

Naruto pulled the knife free and showed it to Sasuke. "This is why," he said. Sasuke examined the blade. It was a long, flat, jet black blade with with a ring directly attached to it, making it resemble a flattened kunai with a long blade, long ring and no grip. The edges were jagged near the end, like saw teeth. "What the hell is this?" Sasuke asked, having never seen a kunai like this.

"That is my Lightning Kunai," Yue said as she snatched the weapon.

"Lightning Kunai?" Sakura asked.

"A kunai I designed for my own personal use," Yue explained, "lighter, sharper and made from a metal that allows chakra to flow through it with ease. I normally charge them with raiton before I throw them, hence the name Lightning Kunai."

"Can I try it out?" Sasuke asked. He liked practising with any type of weapon he could. It was a good idea to be used to various weapons, just in case he had to borrow a weapon or return the enemy's weapons to them, with deadly accuracy.

"Not happening," Yue said as she stowed the weapon.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because for some odd reason, only I have ever been able to use them properly," she said. She then smirked and pulled one out for Sasuke to try out. "Go ahead, oh great Uchiha prodigy. I would love to see you cut your hand open."

Sasuke grunted and found the correct way to hold the weapon. Yue silently commended him, but knew it would end badly. Sasuke swung his arm to throw the blade and promptly grabbed his hand as he hissed in pain. "Dammit!" The blade flew oddly and embedded itself in a root.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried out as she knelt next to her teammate.

"Told you," Yue said as she picked up her kunai. She then noticed the warmth and looked back at Sasuke. "Let me help out," she said as she grabbed his hand and yanked it to her. _'Interesting,'_ Yue thought as she noticed the slight scorch mark on his palm, _'so he can use lightning jutsu as well... Too bad I won't teach him anything if I can help it.'_ She then bandaged his hand up after treating it with a salve she had. "Your hand will be better in an hour or so, just don't use it," she warned, "it will hurt like hell if you do."

Sasuke just grunted at her. "We should have a code or something to make sure we don't get ambushed again," he suggested. He then gave them the code, a monstrous thing that made Yue's eyes spin. Naruto was just staring at Sasuke, wondering how Sasuke could remember something like that. Then again, he never had anybody to sing him a lullaby.

The team was just about to wrap up their little meeting when kunai rained down on them, splitting them up. Yue quickly circled around, looking for Sakura. She met up with the girl and was asked what the code was. "How the hell am I supposed to remember that?"

Sasuke showed up and recited the code as he pointed the kunai at his two female teammates. Sakura rattled it off at the same time as Sasuke. Yue just shook her head, trying to remember what she just heard. "Well?" Sasuke asked. "I'm too stupid to remember something like that!" Yue shouted.

"Geez Yue," Naruto said as he walked into the clearing, "I can't believe you forgot the code." He then recited it.

Yue and Sasuke slashed at Naruto, missing by a huge margin.

"Now I know you aren't Naruto," Yue growled, "he isn't that good."

"Or smart enough to remember the password," Sasuke added, "he would have said that he didn't remember the password like Yue did."

The fake Naruto chuckled at them. "I guess I can't trick you that easily, Sasuke-kun," he said as he released the henge and became a grass kunoichi, "you too, Yue-san."

Yue's battle flare was gone. She didn't know why, but she was terrified. A part of herself, one she thought she had lost a year and a half ago, told her to beg for her life. She lowered her swords, deciding to assume a more evasive stance.

"Where is Naruto?" Sakura shouted.

"Kukukuku. Playing with my pet right now," the Kusa-nin said, "though he won't be playing in a few seconds."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, I forgot to feed it earlier, so I figure it will see Naruto as a snack," the kunoichi said.

Without warning, Sasuke and Sakura were struck by kunai, right through their foreheads. Yue took one to her neck, feeling her blood spray from the wound.

_'Shit!'_ Yue thought as she stabbed herself in the leg with Yin, cancelling the illusion. It wasn't genjutsu, just plain killing intent. _'To be able to project that much killing intent and so perfectly...This one is a high jōnin at the very least!'_

She turned and saw Sasuke jab himself with a kunai, just in time to shove Sakura out of the way of two kunai and take her away to safety to the bushes.

"So it is just me and you," the woman hissed, "I wonder if you will be useful as well. Let me see your power. I want to know, I must know. Can you use it? The blood I want." She rushed at Yue with a kunai in each hand. Yue lifted her blades, ready to defend herself.

_[Five minutes later]_

_'She is playing with Yue,'_ Sasuke thought as he watched the battle, his hand clamped over Sakura's mouth to silence her. A frantic mumbling hit his ears and he turned to tell her to shut up, just in time to dodge and kill the snake that was aiming for him. _'That was too close!'_

Sasuke turned back, only to pull Sakura aside as Yue skid over to them. "D-dammit!" the girl spat as blood leaked from her mouth, "if only I had-!" She stopped as she was wracked with almost paralysing pain.

"Hmm?" the kunoichi hummed, "could it be that... Kukukukuku. That is why you are so weak right now." She then sighed. "I have no use for you now that you are dying. Please move aside so that I can deal with Sasuke-kun."

_'Yue is dying?'_ Sakura thought. She then realized it might be true. Yue's abilities and health had been steadily declining since the Wave mission. The girl couldn't even hide the attack that was coursing through her right now.

Sasuke stood up and drew his kunai. "Fine," he said, "I'll try to stop you."

_[Ten minutes later]_

"I can't believe that snake tried to eat me," Naruto mumbled. First, he got separated from his team. Then he ran into what had to be the largest snake in the world. THEN he had to get eaten by the damn thing. Lucky for Naruto, unlucky for the snake, Naruto was a specialist of the kage bunshin. Poor snake never knew what blew it to shreds. "Eat something your own size in the next life," Naruto muttered.

He followed the chakra signatures as well as the sounds of a battle. What bothered him was that he could feel two faint chakra signatures, one of them weakening, a massive chakra and a large one that was quickly weakening. That worried him because he couldn't tell who was who. For all he knew the small, weakening one was...

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted and quickened his pace. He reached back to draw a kunai, only to find that his time in the snake had been enough for his weapon pouch to burn off. "Dammit!" he growled as he snatched up a rock on his way into the trees.

When he got to the scene of battle, he felt ready to chuck the rock in his hand at Sasuke's head with all his might. _'What the fuck is he thinking?'_ Naruto raged, _'does he really think someone like that will let us live? She is out for our lives you dumbass!'_ He threw the rock at the kunoichi instead, causing her to jump back as he landed and picked up their scroll.

"What are you-" Sasuke started, but Naruto punched him in the face as hard as he could. "I don't know who you are, and I wish I could remember the code, but I don't need it to know that you are a fake!" Naruto shouted.

"You don't know what is going on!" Sasuke yelled back, "We need to give her the scroll or she is going to kill us!"

"In what fucked up corner of your head did the idea that she would let us live spring from?" Naruto shouted.

"Kukukukuku. Why go spoiling my fun, Naruto-kun?" the Kusa-nin asked, "I was almost to the good part."

Sasuke fell to his knees, truly terrified now. It finally sunk in, this woman wouldn't be happy until they were all dead. Why didn't he realize it sooner? What made him think that he could escape with his life? Why did it take Naruto to have him finally realize the truth?

He looked up to see an enormous snake staring at him. Something had happened while he was busy in his head. He tried to move, but he was just too slow.

CRASH!

"What's the matter?" a battered Naruto asked, pupils slitted and his whisker marks more visible, "you the scaredy cat now?" The snake lifted itself up, only for Naruto to uppercut the thing out of existence. Sasuke watched in stunned silence as Naruto, the weakest link in their team, went toe to toe with an opponent that Sasuke had struggled against a few minutes earlier.

It didn't last.

The woman stretched her tongue out and tied up Naruto's legs with it while her left hand held one of his wrists. She stared at his stomach for a few moments, then slammed her hand into it. Instantly, the overwhelming power radiating from Naruto vanished. Satisfied that Naruto was down for the next little while, she threw him away to a branch where he started slipping. Luckily for the blond, Sakura managed to keep him from scattering his brains on the ground with a well aimed kunai.

Sasuke looked back in time for the woman to grab his arms and...bite his neck! At first, it was just a burning sensation where the teeth had punctured him, but after a moment it spread like wild fire and burned him from the inside. He passed out from the pain.

_[An hour later]_

Yue came to, feeling the world spin as her insides felt like they were being twisted around a burning pike. _'I must have suffered an attack...'_ she thought to herself. She tried to sit up, but the dull ache in her guts flared up and stopped her. She moaned in pain.

"Yue?" Sakura asked as she came over to her downed teammate, "what is wrong with you?"

Yue wanted to keep it a secret, her true nature, her past, but she couldn't. She told Sakura about what she was, how she came to be and her upbringing, if you could call it that, as well how she came to be like this. By the end, the pink haired girl was in tears as she stared down at a person who should have broken years ago. "W-where is the medicine?" she asked once she stopped crying.

"My pocket, on the side opposite to you," Yue said as she shifted her arm out of the way. Sakura fished out the bottle and read it, eyes widening. "This is... This medicine is killing you!" she shouted.

"Not giving me that medicine might kill me faster," Yue stated, "without it, I can suffer a fatal seizure any time now. With it, I have about a month of active duty left in me, possibly three months of life after that if I'm lucky." Sakura took off the cap and pulled out two of the tablets, helping Yue take them. "Thanks Sakura," Yue said as she settled down. She didn't get to say much more before she passed out from exhaustion.

_[Very early next morning]_

Yue woke up to the sounds of battle. She got up, feeling everything hurt for a moment before it all faded away. She looked towards the sounds and saw the Oto team beating on Sakura. Yue shot up and rushed to help her friend.

Off to the side, Team 10 was hiding behind a stand of bushes, waiting to see what was happening.

"Maybe we should help her out?" Choji offered.

"Are you nuts?" Ino shot back, "we're too weak!"

"Too troublesome," Shikamaru stated.

A cry was heard as Sakura's hair was grabbed by the black haired kunoichi, Kin. Yue was kicked down by the creep covered in bandages. To Team 10's shock, Sakura hacked her hair to free herself. They then watched as Sakura faced off against that creep with the dull eyes.

"Maybe we should go now?" Shikamaru asked. Sadly, that was the last thing he would say for a while.

"**Zankūha!"** the dull eyed creep shouted as he blasted Yue, who had tried for a sneak attack, away.

Straight at Team 10.

Shikamaru managed to mouth 'troublesome' right before the top of Yue's head impacted his forehead. In that moment before he passed out, two thoughts ran through his head.

_'Now I know why they are called forehead protectors...Too troublesome to move it now.'_

_'Yue's head is hard...'_

The Nara heir and petite ninja were knocked out for the remainder of the battle. Unfortunately for Team 10, the impact caused enough noise for them to be noticed. It also didn't help that Shikamaru had groaned before passing out.

Choji made a valiant effort of running away, but Ino dragged him out by his scarf. "I can't let you get too far ahead of me with Sasuke-kun Forehead!" Ino shouted as she appeared in the clearing. "Choji! Do it!" Ino commanded.

Choji put his chips away. **"****Baika no Jutsu!"** he shouted as he grew into a large ball shape.

"What the hell, you gonna smother me, Fatass?" Zaku chuckled at his own joke.

Ino smirked, knowing the creep was done for now.

"I'M NOT FAT!" Choji shouted, "I'M BIG BONED!" He then rolled like a bowling ball as he rushed at Zaku. **"Nikudan Sensha!"**

Zaku grinned maniacally at the boy coming at him. He held up his hands. **"Zankūha!"** he shouted, blasting Choji off course and into a tree. The blow was enough to daze the poor boy.

"Good work," Dosu said as his team regrouped. "Do us a fovor and-!" He dodged away as Kin threw a senbon at him. "Kin, what are you doing?" he shouted as his teammate glared at him.

"I caught your teammate, so give up now," Kin/Ino said. To her shock, Dosu drove his foot into her stomach. Realizing her actions were useless as she saw her own body cough up blood, she released the jutsu and dealt with the pain.

"Now where were we?" Dosu asked, "oh yes. Wake up Uchiha Sasuke so we can kill him."

The girls would have protested and fought to the bitter end, but the subject of the conversation appeared next to Zaku and backhanded him into Dosu. What terrified them was the black splotches all over his left arm and half his face. The glare he sent at the Oto genin was terrible as well, one that looked like it belonged on the face of a heartless killer.

"I know what she gave me now," he said mostly to himself.

"W-what?" Sakura gasped. His voice was so hollow, so distant.

"I am an Avenger. I live to kill that man and I will never stop until I have done so," he then glanced back at her, the coldness in his eyes never vanishing, "she gave me the power I needed."

"Go to hell!" Zaku shouted as he got up. He pointed his arm cannons at Sasuke. **"Zankūkyokuha!"** he shouted as the air blast annihilated the forest in front of him. "Hah-hahahahaha! I killed you, fucking bastard!" he cheered to the sky.

"Not even close," Sasuke said as he appeared and axe handled the boy in the back of the head, his curse mark eating more of him. He grabbed Zaku's arms and stomped on the genin's back as he pulled slightly. "These arms...without them, you are even more worthless than trash," Sasuke informed his hapless opponent, "maybe I should tear them off?"

"No! Not my arms! Anything but my arms!" Zaku howled.

"No, I **will** take your arms," Sasuke said, a grin of pure lunacy marring his face as he yanked back, dislocating both of Zaku's arms. He grabbed the ruined genin by the hair and dragged him to his knees. "That was because you foolishly stood before me. What I am about to do is for what you did to Sakura," he said as he reached for a kunai.

"Stop it!" Sakura cried as she grabbed Sasuke in a hug from behind, "you've done enough! I'm fine Sasuke-kun!"

"S-Sakura..." he stuttered. His curse seal started receding, much to Dosu and Kin's relief.

"GAH!" Naruto shouted as he shot up. He took a quick look and dove to the ground. "Everyone! Get down!"

Whack!

"You really are half moron, half idiot," Choji informed his blond friend as he prodded at his head with a stick.

Naruto dismissed the comment and sat up, noticing Sakura's appearance for the first time. While he liked her with long hair, he suddenly decided he liked her with short hair too. "Sakura-chan... What happened to your hair?"

"Oh that?" she touched her hair, "I just decided it was time for an image change." She then glanced over to where Yue had flown off. "Maybe you should go check on Yue?"

Naruto decided to do so, since Ino seemed to be itching to do something. He went off to check on his teammate. He saw the lazy heir too. "Hey Shikamaru! Time to get up," he called. Shikamaru didn't move. "Fine, keep pretending for five more minutes," the blond said and checked his teammate.

Back with the girls, Ino was commenting on Sakura's hack job as she fixed it up. She just finished when Naruto screamed bloody murder. "Sakura-chan! Sasuke!" he screamed.

The four genin ran over to find Shikamaru and a frantic Naruto seated next to Yue. "What's wrong?" Ino asked. She had been tempted to tease him, but seeing how he was had her concerned.

"Y-Yue! I-I don't think she's b-breathing!" he warbled, close to tears. Losing people, especially his friends, was hard on Naruto.

Sakura rushed over and shoved Naruto aside. She placed her head on Yue's chest, hearing a heartbeat. She then placed her hand gently over the girl's mouth and nose to see if she was still breathing. It was faint, but far too faint for the girl to live long. "She needs CPR," Sakura said.

It was a Mexican standoff, ninja style.

"Too troublesome," Shikamaru mumbled.

"I am not doing it," Sasuke grunted.

"I-Sakura-chan-um!" Naruto stuttered.

Choji didn't say anything since he had fainted when he heard that Yue wasn't breathing.

Sakura and Ino silently exchanged their reasons for not doing it. (Cough- Sasuke -cough) Sakura silently sent back that she was far ahead and it would stay that way. Ino sighed. "Hey Shikamaru! Get your lazy ass over here, you are doing chest compressions!" she ordered. Shikamaru decided to do as he was told. He had seen what happened when his father didn't listen to such commands. It was less troublesome to push on the girl's chest than deal with Ino's nagging later for not doing it. Besides, its not like Yue had anything there anyways.

That would be a decision that was both good and bad.

On the fourth exhale, Shikamaru accidentally started the compressions too early, causing Ino to cut her lip on Yue's teeth. The blonde glared at the pineapple haired boy, then exhaled into Yue's mouth to get the girl breathing again. She managed to move her mouth away before Yue was seemingly shocked by an unseen force.

"W-what is going on?" Ino asked.

"Get away from her!" Sakura shouted, "she's having a seizure!"

The two backed away and joined their former classmates. "A seizure?" Ino asked. Sakura kept silent. It had been hard for Yue to tell her and she believed that it should be Yue's decision as to whether anyone else knew her secrets.

Yue was hit with another jolt, then dark blue chakra appeared and spun around her lazily.

"Okaaaay..." Ino mumbled, "that is the strangest seizure I have ever seen..." The others nodded.

The petite girl's chakra picked up speed, darkening further until it became a slow maelstrom of black chakra. She jolted again as silver chakra erupted from her body, turning the slow storm into a furious black and silver chakra dervish. They watched as Yue's hair changed, growing darker, a shock of silver appearing on her bangs above the spot between her eyes. The mark on her face and neck flashed, seemingly flowing with bright red lava. Her canines and nails lengthened, becoming small fangs and claws respectfully. The wound on her shoulder closed up and healed without a scar. The chakra flowed back into her and she stopped shaking.

"Y-Yue?" Naruto asked, terrified that something had taken over their teammate.

Yue twitched. "Mmmmm. Naruto?" she asked as she woke up and got up unsteadily. "Whoa!" she cried as she fell down. She looked at the others, wondering why she was being stared at so oddly.

First thing they noticed was Yue's eyes and the marks on her face. The mark was no longer glowing, just the simple scratch-like marks, but they were a deep crimson color now, almost like blood stains. Her eyes were the opposite of the dark markings on her face. They were the same color as before, only much brighter. You could even call the intensity electric. The pupils were slitted too...

"Hmm?" Yue them got onto her knees and reached behind herself. They were wondering what she was doing when she gasped and quickly did whatever she was doing.

"What are you doi-!" Shikamaru asked, only to suddenly let his jaw drop at what he saw.

"My tail is back~" Yue happily chimed as she got back to her feet and did a pirouette, letting her tail twitch in happiness. It was then that everyone noticed she had a pair of cat ears on her head.

"W-w-what a-are you?" Ino managed.

"Hmm? I'm a nekomata hanyō," Yue purred, "didn't I mention that before?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Oops." The flesh and blood catgirl smiled nervously. She started talking.

**A/N~**

Bet nobody saw that coming. I mean, I've been dropping hints all over the place. Her napping in window sills, curling up to sleep, her speed and balance, leaving cats behind as a safe kawarimi, being compared to a cat all the time and her eared hood. It was almost painfully obvious what I was leading up to, to me anyways.

_**!Announcement!**_

I will be working almost exclusively on Konoha's Two Demons until the end of Part I. Then I will work on my other fic, Kyūbi's Kit until the same point. The reason for this is so that I can collect all the currently released chapters, read them, decide on deviations from canon for three fics. (Konoha's Two Demons, Kyūbi's Kit and Necessary Darkness) Since I have never read beyond Garra's revival by Chiyo, the chapters will probably slow down considerably. I've already planned a number of things, but I need to see how the events play out.

**!Omake!**

**I missed something!**

A good distance from Konoha, at a small hot spring, a man with long white hair was getting ready to peek at the bathing women when his Super Pervert senses started tingling. It was then that he knew there was a gold mine going on somewhere and he was missing it. He cursed to himself at the awesome material that was slipping through his fingers, but glued his eye to the hole to enjoy the view.

"Show me everything!" the man whispered as he started scribbling in a notepad at almost inhuman speeds.

_Nekomata:_ Cat demons, normally possessing two tails. Nibi is said to be an extremely advanced Nekomata, a goddess of them even. Most nekomata range from the size of a normal house cat to the size of a medium sized bear.

_Hanyō:_ Half demon, half human. Not exactly rare, but it is rare to find stable ones. Most are either human with enhanced abilities and pitiful yōki or they are wild beasts that madly attack anything that enters their territory. Hated due to mixed heritage. Can inherit powers from both human and demon parents, or even develop mutant abilities of their own.

**SuperNeos2:** Fun stuff will happen XP

**Kuro-Ookami4:** Never read or watched enough to hear their names. Stopped around the appearance of the guy with the long katana. Heard that Saber chose to ditch the Emiya in the end and I lost interest in the series. Yin and Yang received their names because of *(^#*%)&* (Message encrypted to prevent spoilers. Clearance Level Epsilon required to decode, or wait for later chapters.) Their design was based on the fact that one represents, just like chakra, spirit and physical. Because Yang is the 'physical' blade, it possesses a deadlier edge. Since Yin is the 'spiritual' blade, it has a clean and pure edge.

**9-tailed reaper:** Hebi-homo has been around almost as long as Sasugay, not Sasgay. Because of the Sas-U-Gay jokes. Orochimaru struck everyone as a pedophile. What else do you call a person who constantly shouts "I need Sasuke-kun now!" or "Sasuke-kun, give me you body!" That is definitely a pedophile.

Itachi is not a bad guy in this fic. He constantly tries to foul things up, such as 'failing' his attempts to capture Naruto and doing something that happens in Part II. He will still die, but it won't be in vain.

Sasuke will get the shit beaten out of him before Part I completely ends. Yue will lay the smack down on him, stomp a mudhole in him and walk it dry as well as many other awesome sayings that depict an epic as hell asskicking! But the price she has to pay...it is great, almost as great as the price the others almost had to pay. A future chapter's title will be: _To Betray your Mentor_

Ugh, mentioning those 'professionals' makes me sick. I remember one opening that was subtitled, the idiots mistranslated English lyrics! Bunch of over payed hacks if you ask me. Half of the time, I think they just babelfished it and cleaned it up. They even claimed the subtitling of Deathnote's opening and closing theme's as their own when it was done by a fansub group. Talk about useless, thieving idiots. The fansub groups could do a better job at it.

**Sky Zephyrus:** Um, what hints? NaruSaku hints? If so, chapter 16 has some. If you meant hints about what Yue is, I scattered them in almost every chapter she has appeared in. No need for hints anymore since she has revealed her true nature. There will be hints about other things concerning her though.

**Thedarkpokemaster:** Crazier, wilder, better and more interesting.

**Slices:** Didn't I say that no real romance until Part II? I remember saying that somewhere. Anyways, there will be hints of future relationships, mostly around the search for Tsunade arc. Also, welcome to my fic. Hope the promise of NaruSaku and Yuri keeps you coming.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Escaping the forest, training begins

**_Fixed! Can't believe I didn't pick that up the fifteen times I went over this chapter._**

**Disclaimer: I only own Yue and any OCs I create. Naruto and co are not mine.**

In a nearby stand of trees, Kabuto had been watching the battle and was quite surprised to see Yue's revival. He had seen the signs of her impending death from the first moment and had started to dismiss her from the planned attack. Now though, she appeared to be back to her old self, personality and power included. If her powers were back, then that meant that she would be a hindrance to the plan. He had to inform Orochimaru as soon as possible. First, he needed to infiltrate their team to update their information.

_[Team 7 & 10]_

Yue had finished explaining everything to them, including what appeared to be a slow decay that she had barely managed to avoid. She had accidentally called Ino an angel while she thanked her, only to get yelled at by Sakura. Ino thanked her for being able to see the truth. Sakura argued that the truth was that Ino was a pig. All this was done while Ino fixed Sakura's hair. It was a small wonder Ino didn't shave Sakura bald.

"So does this mean you are strong again?" Sasuke asked. He was examining the Earth Scroll that Yue had somehow managed to retrieve from that Kusa-nin. She had claimed she took it while they fought.

Yue nodded. Her memories of the last three days were kind of fuzzy, so she couldn't remember the battles from before too well. "It also seems that my organ damage is reversing itself due to my regenerative ability," she informed the others.

"So it should be easier to-" Naruto started.

"No it won't," Yue interrupted, "I'm like Kakashi back in Wave, still recovering. I can use jutsu, just not too much or for too long. I can't fight properly yet either. I should be recovered soon after the we finish this test. Even if I was at full strength, I won't be a quick and easy cheat for anyone."

"Look, this is interesting and all, but we need to get going now," Shikamaru said as he turned to leave. Choji followed. Ino told Sakura to find her when they were out of the forest so she could properly fix her hair. Yue's eyes trailed after Team 10 for a few moments.

"We should get going too," Yue said, right before she drew Yin in a flash and held it to the neck of the person who was behind her.

"Um, I come in peace?" Kabuto said with uncertainty. Yue lowered her blade and placed it in its sheath.

"Why are you here Kabuto-san?" Naruto asked.

"I'm here to help you out," Kabuto said with a gentle grin.

Fifteen minutes later, team 7 and Kabuto were heading for the dead center of the forest. According to Kabuto, there were teams that gathered around the tower to get trophies, extra scrolls so they could brag or something.

"So we find one of these teams and take a scroll from them?" Sakura asked. Kabuto nodded.

They came to a clearing and were forced to take to the ground. Before they had a chance to continue on, a hail of kunai and shuriken flew from all angles.

"Looks like they found us!" Kabuto exclaimed as he dodged.

"Bring it on!" Naruto shouted. The attackers answered with more weapons.

"They'll keep doing this till we're too weak to fight back, then they'll cut us down," Yue growled. She was doing her best, but her body couldn't keep up. A stray senbon lanced into her bicep.

The 'battle' went on for another while. Naruto attempted to use his Kage Bunshin to find the ninja, but they got dispelled before they even got to the edge of the clearing. Then it happened, the five genin were too tired to move anymore.

"That's enough," a breathless sounding voice ordered. Three Ame-nin stepped into the clearing, all three wearing the standard outfit and rebreather set. "Now, kindly die and let us take your scroll."

"Good work Naruto," Sasuke said from behind the three attacking ninja.

"What?" the short Ame-nin, the leader, gasped out. The five Konoha-nin smiled at him before they were enveloped in smoke, proving to be four henged Naruto clones and the original.

The real Naruto fell to his knees. "Take a break Naruto," Sasuke said, "I can take these guys down."

Whack! Naruto had appeared from nowhere and kicked the tall Ame-nin into his teammates, knocking them all down in a pile. "Thanks for the assist Yue!" Naruto called out as he landed. The false Naruto chuckled, then released the henge to reveal Yue, who fell forward to rest a bit. Her clones were dispelled.

"Let's get them," the Ame-nin leader commanded. He and his teammates all stood in the same position. **"Oboro Bunshin no Jutsu!"** they called out as clones appeared all over the place.

"Kage bunshin?" Naruto asked. Kabuto shook his head. "Then I'll just beat them all!" the blond declared as he rushed at one.

And went right through it.

Naruto had a 'what the hell' look on his face. "Baka! Regular clones aren't solid!" Sakura shouted.

Sasuke could feel the dull ache of his bite wound. He knew he had to help out, but just channelling the chakra needed for his sharingan was painful. It was almost like the bite was rigged to mess with his eyes. He only needed it for a moment to find the real ones. "Sharingan," he whispered as Naruto and Kabuto's chakra became visible. He saw all the ninja facing them were just masses of chakra. "Naruto!" he gasped out, "they are all clones!"

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried, "stop using your sharingan! It's making it worse!"

Kabuto tackled Naruto aside as one of the Ame-nin rose from the ground and attempted to cut him. "Careful! They're under the ground, synchronizing their attacks with the clone's to make it harder to find them!" A bit of blood dripped from a cut across his nose.

"GAH!" the third Ame-nin cried out. Looking over revealed that Yue had caught him off guard, jamming Yang through his shoulder. With that slight distraction, the tall one was knocked out by Sasuke and the last one was defeated by Naruto and Sakura. Yue slowly disabled the one she had caught by shoving her blades through nerve centers.

Naruto checked them and found a Heaven Scroll, the one they needed.

"Kabuto!" a masked nin called out.

"My team is here," Kabuto said, "I'll see you four at the tower." He waved and left with his team.

"Let's head to the tower," Sasuke ordered, "we are almost out of time." Naruto and Sakura helped Yue onto her feet and Team 7 made their way to the tower.

_[Day 5, Tower]_

The four stood in a room with an inscription on the wall. They read it out a few times, not making sense of it. Sakura noticed the holes that looked like something was fit into it. "Open the scrolls?" Yue suggested. Naruto and Sakura opened them, noticing that what was written inside made no sense.

"Drop them!" Sasuke shouted. His teammates listened.

Poof!

"Congratulations on making it," Iruka commended as the cloud faded. He didn't get much else out because Naruto tackled him in a hug. He looked over the genin, noticing Sakura's hairstyle change, Sasuke's pained face, Naruto wincing a bit while holding his stomach and Yue having assumed her true form once more. It didn't escape his notice that all looked just a bit roughed up. He explained the meaning of the inscription on the wall, filling in the blanks and telling them about the meaning behind Heaven and Earth. Yue scoffed when Iruka basically claimed Sasuke's conditioning was ideal for a chūnin.

"No more time," Iruka said, "you four need to get going for the beginning of the next stage." The four genin left. He remembered the times when they had been his students, even Yue.

_[Twenty minutes later]_

Yue stared at the proctor, Hayate, who just asked if anyone wanted to back out. The Hokage had went on about some things that didn't really matter in her opinion. Well, it was important, just not at the moment. What mattered was kicking things off and kicking someone down and out of the running for the main tournament that would be held in a month. She truly wanted to test her power against Naruto and that stuck up brat Neji. Then again, maybe Sasuke and that Gaara kid would be fun to fight as well. Scratch that, Sasuke would be boring to fight.

Kabuto stepped forward, fully intending to quit when he stopped himself. How many times has he done this? Six? Seven? If he didn't want to seem suspicious, then he should at least go for the prelims. After all, he always quit here and he was a survivor from _that_ battlefield. Those two points alone were suspicious enough. With any luck, he would get a strong enough opponent and he would be able to be 'knocked out' by them.

"If nobody is quitting, then let us start the preliminary matches," Hayate declared. He turned to an electronic screen. "This board will determine who fights who. When it finishes selecting the combatants, all others are expected to leave for the observation decks." With that, the screen declared the first match.

Uchiha Sasuke VS Akado Yoroi

Everyone started filing towards the decks. Yue grabbed Sasuke by his collar. "If you want to live to see the finals, don't use your sharingan or any jutsu," she warned before shoving him aside and stalking over to Kakashi. She exchanged some heated words with the jōnin, then went to stand with the others. Kakashi told Sasuke that he would stop the battle if he saw any signs of trouble from the curse mark.

Sasuke, not wanting to lose the chance to test his strength, fought Yoroi in a pure taijutsu battle. To make things bad, Yoroi literally sucked. He was somehow able to syphon his opponent's chakra through a mere touch. This was all according to Orochimaru's plan. The serpent was disguised as a Sound jōnin, smiling as he watched Sasuke draw closer to his plan.

To everyone's shock, except for Yue, Sasuke copied Lee's moves, kicking Yoroi into the air. He then appeared behind the boy within his shadow.

That is when it went downhill.

Sasuke was almost completely tapped out and the curse mark took full advantage of that and started spreading like an infectious contagion. It took over his entire left arm and part of his face when it halted, a sure sign that Sasuke was rejecting it. He forced it back, then created a new technique he called Shishi Rendan. As Yue expected, Kakashi appeared and spirited the boy away before the medics could get to him.

"Tch. Kakashi is hypocrisy at its finest," she spat. For all his speeches on fairness, the man was obviously quite focused on a single student. No matter, if he didn't want to train the rest of his team, then Yue would do it. Hell, she already taught them more ninjutsu in a week than he had in the three months he had the team.

Yue was broken out of her musings by Naruto tapping her shoulder. She looked at him and he pointed to the board.

Yakushi Kabuto VS Kazeneko Yue

Yue smirked at the thought of using her power again. She had been without it for so long and it felt so good to be whole again. Chakra, for her anyways, was like a drug. It invigorated her, made her feel greater than some half breed runt. While it was true that she wasn't at full strength yet, she had recovered enough for a good fight. Her coils needed a good draining or two to fully recover. The coils and her chakra system were still clogged up with some of her fouled chakra.

She hopped over the rail and landed on the battlefield, then rushed on all fours to where she was supposed to stand. Kabuto smiled when he made it to his starting spot. "Please be gentle with me," he said as he held out his hand. Yue glared at it, then shook it. At least she could conform to her opponent's pre-battle stuff.

"Begin!" Hayate announced before jumping out of range.

Yue started with a bang, or at least she had intended to. Her Dynamic Entry missed by a narrow margin. No matter, she twisted in mid air to land her other leg on the side of Kabuto's head. This connected and staggered the boy. Before he had a chance to recover, Yue landed and charged at him, driving a simple hand strike at his face, which he dodged. Turns out that was a feint for the uppercut she drove into his chin, knocking the boy onto his back. He skid back about two feet before he came to rest.

"Round two?" Yue asked as she bounced on her feet like a boxer. She was thrilled. Her body hadn't moved so fluidly in battle for a while. Maybe after seeing this, the council and the Hokage would just reinstate her to her proper rank again. Kabuto didn't move aside from breathing. Hayate went over to check on him, then declared Yue the winner by knockout. "What a buzz kill," she growled as she walked away to the stands.

She shouldn't have expected to much. The genin assembled were about mid-chūnin level at best. She was almost at tokubetsu jōnin level. Even so, she had held back a lot and expected to at least have to dodge an attack or a jutsu. Kabuto was taken away by medics to Konoha's hospital.

The fight also left a bitter taste in her mouth, almost like it had been decided that Kabuto would lose to her.

Yue sat back and watched the other matches.

Zaku VS Shino. Shino's win by making Zaku blow one of his own arms off while the other was left with a gaping hole in it. Goodbye one trick horse.

Misumi VS Kankuro. Kankuro's win by trickery, puppetry and broken body. Ouch.

Kin VS Shikamaru. Lazy boy won by capturing Kin with his shadow and making her smash her head into the wall. She should have never used ninja wire. Boring as hell, but kinda cool to watch.

Hinata VS Neji. After all this time, Neji was still such an asshole. Not only was he clearly stronger, but he just has to go and tear her apart mentally before decimating her physically. The jōnin, minus Asuma and Kakashi, stopped the match before Neji could deliver a killing blow to her. Not that it mattered, the damage she had been dealt put her in a grave condition. Naruto declared that he was going to kick Neji's ass. Lee informed Naruto that he would have to wait in line. Yue snapped the railing in her grip.

Ino VS Sakura. Yue wanted to call this a cat fight, but it was more of a heated debate. Also, Yue wasn't part of it. Once the two former friends got down to it, the battle was fine. A little basic, but still a solid bout. Sakura managed to fend off Ino's shintenshin with a little encouragement from Naruto. The girls then finished each other off with a punch over the head. That was rare, a double knock out with the exact same attack.

Tenten VS Temari. The fan user steamrolled her opponent, then tried to finish her off by chucking her at the wall. Youthful spandex boy to the rescue! Guy, after going down to stop Lee from attacking Temari, informed the Suna ninja that Lee was not a person to overlook while said boy carried his unconscious teammate. Sakura, who woke up about halfway, told Naruto not to lose to anybody. That was the last thing anyone expected to hear from Haruno Sakura.

Naruto VS Kiba & Akamaru. This was a fight worth watching. Forget the geniuses and their fantastical advanced jutsu. Forget about the Kekkai Genkai that Sasuke and Neji had or the clan jutsu they fired off. This was a real fight. It was a knock down, drag out brawl. This fight was a true testament to the Will of Fire that Hiruzen spoke of every chance he got. Neither fighter wanted to back down. A little way into the fight, Kiba stopped treating Naruto like a bother and sure fire failure, instead seeing him as a worth opponent. Sadly, he had waited too long. Naruto defeated him by copying Sasuke's Shishi Rendan, making it the Uzumaki Naruto Rendan. In Yue's opinion, she preferred Naruto's combo.

Dosu VS Choji. Um, one-sided. Choji seemed to be in the lead when it was revealed that his jutsu plugged his ears. Sadly, Dosu revealed that he could also send sound waves through water, which made up most of the human body. Upon losing, Choji asked what was for dinner. Yue did not want to fight Dosu. Even being almost sixteen feet away, all four of her ears were ringing slightly from that crazy gauntlet. Up close, her brain would explode.

Lee VS Gaara. Holy damn! Most of those assembled were shocked that Lee not only had the speed to evade Gaara's sand defences after removing his restraints, he also had the power to bust through said defences. He could also open the chakra gates, a feat most couldn't do. It was a double edged sword though. He seemingly won the match by battering Gaara and slamming him into the ground with enough force to destroy the arena floor, but Gaara ended the match by crushing Lee's arm and leg. Lee fainted on his feet, challenging Gaara to attack him. The news got worse when the medics said that Lee's own taijutsu had most likely ended his career as a ninja.

To make matters worse, our _dear_ friend Neji had to open his mouth and say that it was Lee's fate to get injured badly, since he had tried to overstep his destiny. It was his punishment for trying to violate the all powerful Fate. Naruto of all people stopped Yue from making Neji's face meet the back of his skull. "Don't," Naruto told the kicking and struggling girl.

"Would all the remaining examinees please come down to the arena floor?" Hayate said, then looked down, "well, the remains of the arena floor."

Everyone assembled on the floor and Anko carried a box around, telling them to take a single piece of paper out. Once everyone had a slip of paper, they were asked to say their number.

"Eight," Dosu said.

"One?" Naruto asked more than said.

"Four," Temari said, wondering what was going on. She secretly hoped she could fight that Uchiha.

"Five," Kankuro mumbled. He seriously hoped he wouldn't have to fight. He didn't want to reveal too much about Karasu.

"Three," Gaara said. He didn't care who he fought, as long as it proved his existence. He used his sand to destroy his paper.

"Nine," Shikamaru...groaned? He sounded so thrilled.

"Two," Neji said, hoping his foe would be Sasuke. Everyone else here was fated to lose to him if they met him in battle. He also wanted to show Yue that she was beneath him now.

"Six," Shino said. His face was, as with his entire clan, as readable as the first test paper.

"Ten," Yue growled. She was still pissed off at Neji and Gaara. She just wanted to burn them down or electrocute them. Maybe she would do both. On a strange whim, she obliterated her slip of paper with a quick shot of flame from her mouth, like she was blowing out a candle.

"That makes Uchiha Sasuke's number seven," Ibiki muttered as he wrote on his clipboard.

"Now that we got your numbers," the Hokage explained, "we can tell you who you are fighting in the main tournament in a month's time."

"What?" Shikamaru shouted, actually becoming animated, "this was all so that we could know who we were going to fight?"

"Ibiki, show them the match ups," the Hokage told the torture expert. Ibiki showed them the paper.

Match 1: Uzumaki Naruto VS Hyūga Neji

Match 2: Kankuro VS Aburame Shino

Match 3: Gaara VS Uchiha Sasuke

Match 4: Temari VS Nara Shikamaru

Match 5: Kazeneko Yue VS Kinuta Dosu

_'Why am I so far from the assholes?'_ Yue thought to herself. She wanted to be picking pieces of Gaara and Neji's asses out of the soles of her sandals for the next twenty years. She hoped she could dodge Dosu's sound strikes. With four ears, the cat ears being four times more sensitive than her hanyō enhanced human ears, those sound waves would reduce her brain to dust. Then again, if she had tried to read anything on the first test, her brain would already be dust.

Shikamaru was thinking of how troublesome it was to fight a girl, and a blonde no less. And if it went the way he thought it would, he would be fighting Yue in the next stage. Talk about troublesome, two women in one day. _'Too troublesome... I'll just forfeit...'_

Gaara was as happy as a pig in mud, wanting to crush the power that Sasuke had shown. Naruto wanted to kick Neji's ass out his forehead.

Neji, the ever arrogant prick, figured it would be easy to get to Sasuke since nothing worth mentioning was in his way. He needed a way to defeat everything Sasuke could throw at him. Temari was very unimpressed since she believed it would be a battle royale or something with the numbers they had drawn.

Dosu glanced at Yue and shivered. Not only did he have to fight a girl, but she was also a very pissed off hanyō who only saw him as a slight speed bump on her way to other people. He would forfeit after checking in on Gaara later.

Naruto was already set to go when the announcements were concluded. "Sakura-chan! Where is Kakashi-sensei?" he shouted.

"Probably at the hospital with Sasuke-kun!" she called back.

"Thanks!" he shouted, then took off. Yue rushed up and picked Sakura up on her back again, then took off to follow Naruto.

"Y-Yue!" Sakura yelped, "what are you doing?"

"You wanted to see Sasuke, right?" Yue asked as she increased her speed and took to the lower roofs. "I have a bad feeling about this..."

Sakura was going to ask about that, but saw Yue's serious expression and stopped.

_[Konoha Hospital]_

Sakura had learned last time. Yue had made it very clear that she was only letting the taller girl off her back when they made it to their destination.

"Can we see Sasuke!" Naruto shouted at the poor medic.

"Sorry, but Uchiha Sasuke-sama is not to see anyone right now," he said, then quietly added, "least of all you, demon."

Bang! Crunch!

"What the hell is wrong with me being a demon?" Yue snapped after kicking a chair, causing the seat to fly into the wall and get lodged in it, "I can't help that my mom was a demon!"

The medic was about to call for ninja to control the girl when Kakashi walked onto the scene. The lazy jōnin took it all in: a scared Sakura on Yue's back, hanyō cat girl growling, Naruto staring at Yue like she was a ramen hater and the seat of a poor chair that met Yue's foot stuck in the wall.

"Keep quiet in the hospital you three," Kakashi warned.

"Kakashi! This idiot called me a demon!" Yue roared, "not that I mind or anything."

"Really?" Kakashi asked. He had the distinct feeling that Yue wasn't the target of said comment. A glance at Yue's expression solidified that feeling.

"W-well...not... A-anyways! Sasuke-sama is not to have visitors at this time," the medic said, saving his own ass in his mind. Later, he would realize how wrong he was when he got picked up by ANBU.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted, having adjusted, "I need training to fight Neji!"

"Sorry Naruto," Kakashi said, "I have to train Sasuke so he is ready for Gaara."

"It's always Sasuke!" Naruto shouted.

"Don't worry Naruto," Kakashi soothed, "I am not really all that suited to training you anyways. I did find someone to train you though."

"Who?" Naruto asked.

"That would be me," Ebisu said as he came into view. Before anything could happen, Yue kicked Ebisu down onto his knees, then knocked him out with a headbutt.

"W-what are you doing?" Naruto shouted, "you just destroyed the closet pervert who was supposed to train me!"

"Ebisu-sensei is a closet pervert?" Kakashi asked. This was the first he heard of it.

"From what you told me about him, he isn't worth your time," Yue growled, "since Kakashi doesn't want to bother with you for longer than he has to, I'll train you." She let Sakura down and told her to take Naruto to the hot springs and wait for her to arrive. Once both genin were gone, the medical staff backed away from the sudden rush of heat, static and KI. All of it coming from Konoha's true demon cat: Kazeneko Yue. Mr. Kibbles couldn't hold a candle to her.

Yue grabbed Kakashi by his vest's collar and nearly yanked the man off his feet. Kakashi's hair, if possible, was standing even straighter from the static Yue's extreme lightning affinity produced. "So that is how it is, huh? Focus on the most advanced and ignore the ones who aren't at your precious Uchiha's level! Or is it about the sharingan?"

Kakashi placed a hand on Yue's slender wrist, preventing her from throwing him or anything. "It isn't like that, Sasuke is the same type I am so it easier to trai-"

"You're an arrogant asshole too? Never saw that coming!" Yue snapped. "Taking the easy road out again, not even bothering to remember what it cost you last know what, never mind about Naruto and Sakura. You can now ignore them all you want because I will do your job for you. I'll also find people to help me train them with what I can't. The least you could have done was send Naruto off to Asuma or Guy and Sakura off to Kurenai..."

Kakashi was puzzled. "What do you mean? Why would I send Naruto to one of those two?"

Yue laughed in his face. "For a person who can tell types, I'm shocked that you can't connect the dots. Must be that all famous Sharingan and its ability to blind its users." She then released Kakashi's vest. "Want to know something? Sasuke is the same type as me as well, but I won't teach him anything because he is far enough ahead already." She glared at the tall man. "Naruto and Sakura are the ones who need the help right now."

"But Sakura isn't even in the finals..." Kakashi said.

That did it.

Without warning, Kakashi found himself flying through the air and out the door. Next thing he knew, Yue appeared under him, running like she did with Lee, her version of the shadow of the dancing leaf. She grabbed him by the waist and caused the two of them to spin rapidly like a buzz saw before she power bombed him into the ground. **"Omote Renge!"** she roared angrily as the dust blasted two stories into the air.

Yue growled as the dust settled. She glared down at the badly splintered log that she had slammed into the ground. "I'll get you one of these days," she said to Kakashi, who was standing on the wall surrounding the hospital.

"Why go so far?" he asked. He knew that had he not switched out of her grip, he would be in critical condition at best. She was pissed!

"Because I haven't forgotten my loss. Like you, I paid the price for being trash, but unlike you, I haven't forgotten what that price was. I have no intention of seeing history loop like an endless, inescapable nightmare," Yue said before she left for the hot springs.

Kakashi went off to the memorial stone and looked down at it. Suddenly, it hit him in the form of an old memory.

_[Flashback, Kakashi's younger years]_

Team Minato was holding a training session. Rin was reading a medical jutsu scroll off to the side. Kakashi was trying to perfect his new jutsu. Minato was helping Obito with something a little more basic.

"Minato-sensei! I need more help with my new jutsu. Obito is fine for now," Kakashi grumbled.

"Kakashi! I need just as much training as you do!" Obito shouted.

"Stop it boys! I told you when you first became my students that I would not focus on one of you because of superior talent or blood. Look at me! I was a nobody and I got this strong because I tried my best when given the chance. For all you know Kakashi, Obito could be stronger than you in the future..." Minato warned.

"As if." Kakashi scoffed.

_[Flashback end]_

"Oh Kami..." Kakashi muttered to himself. Why did he forget something so integral to who he was? Now that he thought about it, he himself had also said that those who abandoned their teammates were lower than trash. He had barely bothered to help Naruto, he could have done much better. And Sakura... he completely ignored her. He had only ever really trained Sasuke, the other two learning only because they were close enough to see and hear.

Why did it take Yue, the girl who ripped her team asunder with her own blood stained claws, to make him see his mistakes?

Yue sweat dropped at the scene before her. Naruto was on the ground, black and blue with an angry Sakura sitting on a nearby rock.

"Did he ask you out on a date?" Yue asked, "or did he hug you?"

"Hmph!" Sakura turned away from her male teammate in disgust. "That **pervert** was peeking on the women when I got here. I **corrected** him."

Yue sighed. This was one of the many problems that Kakashi should have already taken care of. While it was important to allow the team to keep its dynamics when it came to their individual personalities, it was important to help them form a proper bond. Instead, Kakashi had spent his time reading smut and instructing Sasuke. Then again, Naruto did deserve it this time. Yue would have gently cuffed him in the head.

"Sakura!" Yue growled, "next time you hit Naruto without a reason, I'm going to paralyse the arm you used for twenty minutes and make you do push ups the whole time!"

Sakura and Naruto stared at Yue wide eyed. "Y-you can't d-do that," Sakura managed. Sure Yue could be scary, but not that scary.

"Don't tempt me," Yue warned as the temperature rose to that of a hot, muggy summer day. Once Sakura and Naruto let it sink in, Yue stopped altering the temperature and continued. "Naruto, you are facing down a Hyūga who possesses the ability to use the Jūken style to a high degree. To counter that, I am going to help you boost your awareness, speed, and improve your taijutsu."

"But I can already fight," Naruto protested.

"Then let's spar a little," Yue suggested, "I'll fight at Neji's level too, but I'll throw in a few skills I know since I don't know the Jūken."

The bout commenced and it was painfully one sided. Naruto tried tools and tricks, but Yue always kawarimied away and punished him with rapid strikes upon returning. At one point, she countered five shadow clones with five of her own. It was like he was punching at a mirror, cutting himself up with each strike.

In the end, Naruto lay on the ground, panting. "Y-you're good."

"I'm going to help you learn to sense chakra better as well as use kawarimi without hand seals. Needing seals for such a thing is useless. Basically, I'm going to teach you how to mold chakra without the aid of regular chakra molding. You will program your chakra flow to use jutsu on mental command." Yue helped Naruto to his feet.

"Wow...TEACH ME!" Naruto shouted, loving the idea of using jutsu really fast.

"First!" Yue interrupted by grabbing his jaw to halt any motion, "you need better chakra control. For that, I will have you and Sakura practice water walking." She explained water walking, by reading from a scroll, and instructed the two to go and try it. As expected, Sakura got it fairly quickly, only falling in twice. Naruto, on the other hand, was falling in every time.

Yue sighed. "Naruto, keep your concentration up and keep practising," Yue instructed, "Sakura! You and me are going to be doing exercises to increase your chakra levels. I might also teach you a bit about ninjutsu and taijutsu if we get far enough along and you have talent for them. For genjutsu, I'll see if I can get Kurenai to help you out since I can't understand genjutsu at all."

Sakura just stared at the nekomata hanyō. "Why do you talk like that?"

This caught the small girl off guard. "What? How I talk?" That was twice now! Did she really talk strange? She wasn't speaking Kansai-ben again, was she?

Sakura looked away. "Well...You use 'ore' instead of 'watashi.' You also talk loud and frankly..."

"Like a guy?" Yue asked. Sakura nodded. "I can't do the whole girl talk thing. Girls hide too much for my liking. Guys are better since they pretty much blurt out what is on their mind." The cat girl then turned to Naruto. "Hey Naruto! How do you feel about Sakura?"

"S-Sakura-chan?" He looked kind of nervous. "I like -no- I love her!"

"See?" Yue told an annoyed looking Sakura, "guys are open about their feelings. How do you feel about Sasuke?"

"S-Sasuke-kun?" Sakura looked away and tapped her foot on the ground, "w-w-well he is so cool...and good looking...and talented..." The blush said it all.

"See, you didn't clarify your feelings, just gave reasons for them. Nobody could understand you if they didn't already know that you liked him." Yue was smirking.

Sakura was angry now and a vein on her forehead was visible. "You think it is good to be open and all that! Prove it! Go confess to the one you love if you are so open!"

"Sure!" Yue chimed, shocking Sakura, "but if I do, then you have absolutely no right to hit Naruto unless he truly deserves it and you also can't complain about the training." Yue's ears twitched. "You also have to EAT!"

"No way! I need to keep my fig-" Sakura started.

"Your body burns calories to produce the physical half of chakra! A diet will kill you in the end!" Yue growled, "get it through that big, thick forehead that your body will turn on itself to produce chakra when you run low." Sakura's fist flew at Yue's head, but the petite ninja caught it and smirked evilly. "Twenty," Yue stated as her index and middle finger dropped onto the back of Sakura's hand. Sakura felt a buzz in her arm and it went limp and numb. It fell to her side and wouldn't move. "I forgot to mention that ALL acts of unnecessary violence will result in paralysis." The petite ninja then started walking, "you will perform an exercise as we walk. I will use my nose to find the person we are looking for."

Twenty minutes, learning kunai balancing and a case of pins and needles from Hell later, the girls of team 7 were standing before the doors to Yaniku-Q, a barbeque store. Yue pushed through the doors and pulled Sakura along. They went to a table that held team 10.

"Forehead? What are you doing here?" Ino asked, "finally giving Sasuke-kun to me?"

"Sasuke-kun will like you when you learn how to fly, Pig," Sakura shot back. The pinkette then smiled to herself. One of three scenarios was about to play out.

1 - Choji dies by choking when Yue confesses to him.

2 - Shikamaru is strangled by Yue when he says she and/or her confession are troublesome. Ino laughs her ass off, then scolds and lectures Shikamaru for being an ass.

3 – Asuma appreciates Yue's feelings, but she is too young for that kind of stuff. Ino spreads the news through the gossip ring.

It was time for the show! Sakura wished she had a camera.

Yue's cat ears timidly flattened backwards as she stared at her first and only love. "Yamanaka Ino, from the first time I saw you four years ago, you have held my heart in your hands."

Choji, Shikamaru and Asuma all stopped dead. Asuma's cigarette worked on burning itself out without Asuma's help. Choji dropped his bit of meat, letting it fall into the coals to burn to a crisp. Shikamaru was stunned because he figured that someone was finally taking the most troublesome woman to ever be born away from him so she could nag them instead of him. Right there and then, Yue became a good friend of Shikamaru without even knowing it. Sakura, well, let's just say all her mental processes halted.

Ino was stunned. Her eyes were wide and her mouth hung open slightly. Was that a slight blush Yue saw, or was it wishful thinking. "Huh?" the blonde gasped.

Yue started blushing. She reached forward, cupping Ino's cheek with her left hand while gently resting her right on Ino's shoulder for support. She leaned in and placed a light kiss on Ino's forehead. "I love you," the cat girl stated with confidence as she righted herself.

SPURT! Sssss! Choji was down, blood having sprayed from his nose and into the grill. He was not used to seeing stuff like that. His mind raced in the wrong direction too fast and he self-destructed. Asuma was now frozen. Shikamaru prayed for Yue and Ino to hook up in the future, all so he could have some peace and quiet.

Inner Sakura kicked the motor, getting Sakura's mind started again. "I-I-I said boy!" Sakura shouted.

"First, you said the one I love, not the gender. Second, I like girls," Yue informed the pinkette. Sakura shot back a good yard. "Now that I-" Yue started.

"Y-you can't love me!" Ino protested, "w-w-w-we...t-two girls...S-Sasuke-kun!"

"Nothing wrong with girls loving other girls, Anko-sensei told me that. And I doubt Sasuke is interested in anyone," Yue said.

"And how would you know!" Sakura and Ino asked.

"He looks annoyed whenever girls come close to him and try to express their feelings for him." She then turned around, her scarf almost hitting Shikamaru into minimal action again. "Sakura! We need to continue your training as well as check up on Naruto's training!" With that, the petite ninja left. Sakura followed, defeated.

A few minutes after they left, Ino followed them, wanting to see if the small kunoichi was just playing a game so she could have Sasuke for herself.

**A/N~**

**I may have unexpectedly entered the minor leagues in Fanfiction. I have people reviewing earlier chapters, which I consider a sign that this fic is a little popular now. Of course, one was a partial complaint, another was an announcement that they weren't reading anymore because 'only the important people are supposed to know about Naruto's father' and the third was a comment on boobs.**

**The Story of Yue's creation- (Part 1 of 2)**

Originally, Yue was a male character who's name eludes me at the moment. He was a human trained by the Sandaime and the jōnin sensei for Team 7, in place of Kakashi. As one would guess, this got scrapped. Kakashi is needed for many critical parts of the story. Also, the OC sensei for Team 7 has been done many times over. I also read somewhere that Sarutobi only had one genin team, the Sannin.

Working on the male OC vein still, he was made into a fifteen year old genin placed into Team 7 to fill in for Sasuke, who failed Kakashi's test. This was, once again, scrapped. Replacing Sasuke with an OC is old as well and I doubt I could have done it well anyways. This OC was recycled for another fic of mine.

I then made Yue's first design, a human kunoichi, named Freya at the time, with an almost stalker-like love for cats. She was a chūnin that joined Team 7 for the Wave mission and would stay with them after forming a bond with Naruto, Sakura and Ino. At the time, Freya and Ino were not supposed to hook up. Freya was supposed to become Naruto's second wife, after Sakura and before Ino. This was, as expected, scrapped. The OC Freya is used in this fic, but has been heavily altered.

I then changed things around and made a girl who was condemned for 'destroying' her team. To make her more easily hated, I made her a half breed. I took the cat theme from the original Freya and made her demonic parent, her mother, a nekomata. I made her petite and child-like despite being 15 and a half at the start of the series. Like with Freya, she was added in as a fourth member, but as a permanent team member from the very beginning. As a side note, Yue was born on December 13th. That is literally the day I started creating the final version of Yue.

I gave her the name 'Yue' (Moon) due to something that will be revealed around Sasuke's betrayal. Her last name, Kazeneko, means 'wind cat,' and was originally put there because she was supposed to have a wind affinity while in nekomata demon form. Her demon form was scrapped, along with her wind affinity. I left her with her fire and (triple) lightning affinities though. I gave her a very limited jutsu list, which is more limited now, and made a few jutsu just for her.

One thing I have never changed since the OC became female was that she is a total moron, having one of the lowest intelligence ratings of all the characters. Her low intelligence is similar to Naruto's though, meaning she is much smarter than her rating dictates. She was just never taught properly. She is also by far the worst character at genjutsu, with an unchanging genjutsu rating of 0!

The lesbian vein came in when I was listening to a song. The song doesn't matter because it was a plot bunny that showed me an image of Ino and Yue sleeping, the cat girl resting her head on the blonde's shoulder, their hands intimately entwined. That was the birth of the relationship between the two girls. Let's face it, Ino and any attractive girl is hot!

**Kuro-Ookami4:** Yue's tail allows her to perform some crazy acrobatics due to giving her absolutely perfect balance. But yeah, something painful (and funny) happens to it in Part I. It doesn't involve rocking chairs or mouse traps.

**Slices:** I also posted in a reply that Yue wasn't a jinchūriki. If she was, she would die before Part II started up, especially with Nibi. From what I understand, Yugito was quite easy to capture. Also, can you read my mind! That is eerily close to what actually happened. You'll see what happened to her during the time-skip filler.

**Sky Zephyrus:** Yue, as you know, is a heavily cat themed character. And she is only half nekomata. Her father was a human. Expect more insane, Yuri-scented moments between Yue and Anko during the time-skip filler. Anko likes Yue's squeaks of embarrassment!

**Straberry030:** Glad you like it. And Yue spent a lot of time in that forest.

**SuperNeos2:** O-oi! Really? I thought it was obvious. Yue is heavily cat themed, as I already stated. Her last name also means 'wind cat.'

**Thedarkpokemaster:** Yes, Yue is going to be Ino's sex sla- I mean love kitten! Wait, I forgot it is the other way around. The question is: who is Yue's other wife? Here's a hint: she has very few appearances in the Naruto manga. I know nobody is going to get it.

**Twintech 2:** I will finish it, but if people flame it or refuse to read because my OC can draw lines on a picture of Minato's face or realize that Naruto and Minato look similar, I will stop posting. I write for myself first, others second. That is why I very rarely take in suggestions. I'll listen to them, but my plot ideas are almost completely set in iron.

**That guy:** Epic double facepalm done by me and Captain Picard! Boobs are the reason he's going to continue reading this? Eh, I can relate.

**Firestar001:** Honestly, I didn't know there were any other fics that had hanyō in them, that weren't Naruto, Ino, Sasuke, Gaara or Sakura. (I've read a few of them, all DIW) I take it Ascension of the Kitsune is DIW (Dead in the Writer) right now? Don't worry, as long as I don't get flamed to Hell and back for the plot, I will continue writing and posting on Fanfiction. As long as I don't get a bunch of flaming haters. When I'm done Konoha's Two Demons, I'll start working on its mirror fic, Necessary Darkness, in earnest.

While on the subject of Hell, the food sucks, the service is non-existent, wait time is an eternity and I keep finding a guy sitting in my throne. What the hell is up with that?

**9-tailed reaper:** Believe it or not, good Orochimaru without a single gay tendency is easy to write. I believe I favourited Konoha's Red Thunder, a Naruto/inFamous crossover. It is a NaruSakuIno fic that features a good Orochimaru. I also have another fic on the back burner (I've got lots and lots of back burners) that involves all three Sannin being good. It is a Naruko/Sakura/Hinata fic that has yet to be named. I work on it off and on, mostly off though.

Yue was born with a tail, so for her, it is normal to have a tail. And she said it joyously, hence the chiming.

Yue's price for almost kicking Sasuke's ass? That's easy, its-GYAAAA! (got electrocuted by Hebi-Sasuke to prevent spoilers)


	13. Chapter 13

**Naruto, Sakura, Hebi-Sasuke, ?-Yue and Ino stare at the slightly smoking form of Excele Kurokami.**

**Naruto: You overdid it a little.**

**Sakura: A little? He shocked him four times, and with Chidori Nagashi too! Once was enough!**

**Hebi-Sasuke: He was about to spoil the story again. He needs to stop doing that.**

**Yue: Good thing he wrote this already or nothing would happen until he woke up.**

**Hebi-Sasuke: Whatever, I need to train so I can defeat Itachi and Naruto.**

**Ino: Not so fast!**

**Hebi-Sasuke: What? I'm never going to go out with you, so stop bugging me.**

**Ino: You fried Excele, that means you have to do the disclaimer for him. And I wouldn't date you if the world depended on it. Not that your pin prick could get anyone pregnant.**

**Hebi-Sasuke: Hn! Excele isn't special enough to own Naruto. Only Kishimoto and me are great enough to own Naruto.**

**The others (thinking): Did that sound gay to anyone else, or is it just me?**

Chapter 13: Finals Start

Yue returned to see Naruto drag himself out of the water again. He took everything other than his boxers and forehead protector off so he could cool down. Yue noticed something when he molded his chakra. A seal appeared on his stomach, along with something odd on it. "Naruto! Let me see that wound on your stomach!" she called out. She told Sakura to continue with her current exercise, kunai balancing, while she checked up on Naruto. Sakura was staring at Naruto, never having seen a boy without his shirt off.

_'I don't really remember too much of what happened, but it seems some seals were put on top of another seal...'_ Yue thought as she looked at it. Had she been more sure of her aim with her ability to erode chakra seals, she would have gotten rid of the offending seals. She wasn't a seal mistress or anything, but even she could tell that the big one was important and the little ones wasn't supposed to be there. It might explain why Naruto had so much trouble with water walking. Course, she had no clue how.

"Naruto, I am going to try to help you with your-"

A perverted giggle reached the three genin. All looked over to see an old man dressed in a red coat with long white hair standing at the fence, eye glued to Naruto's peep hole.

"-Awareness..." she finished. She waited, hoping the man had some form of decency.

He didn't. Not even the ghost of a shred. He continued his ocular assault of the unsuspecting women.

Yue charged at the man, right hand cocked back. She swung and her claws tore only air apart. Before she knew it, a giant toad landed on her, burying her under it and the old pervert.

"You disrupted my research. For that, you have been punished," the old perv stated as he sat atop the toad.

"W-who are you?" Naruto shouted.

"Me? I am the legendary man who makes women melt with a single glance. The one who silences babies with ease. A master of over a thousand jutsu and Myōbokuzan's one and only master sennin, Jiraiya the Toad Sage!" he proclaimed as he assumed a strange pose. The toad sort of joined in.

"Lame," Naruto said. Sakura nodded weakly.

Jiraiya was about to say something when his toad was dispelled. He looked down in time for Yue to grab his leg behind the knee. "RAWR!" with that primal roar, she threw him into the air with an extremely rapid spin. He went over the wall and fell into the springs with a splash. Contrary to his introduction, the women screamed and the sound of slapping, kicking and punching met the genin's ears. It ended with a sharp crack, whether it was the old man's neck or some random wooden object he was hit with remained to be seen.

Poof!

A slightly injured and wet Jiraiya appeared before them "That wasn't funny!" he shouted.

"Was for me," Yue smirked, "that's what you get for dropping a frog on me and not moving right away."

"That was a toad, neko-baka," Jiraiya stated. Yue growled, already annoyed with the old man. Besides, she was a Baka-Neko, not a Neko-Baka.

"I don't really know anything about what you said," Naruto stated, trying to make sense of the old pervert's words.

"Hmm. Maybe my writing talent will speak 'volumes' for me," the Jiraiya joked as he pulled out a very familiar orange book.

"AH!" the three genin gaped.

"I see it is popular even here," Jiraiya said to himself with his eyes closed. Sadly, he wasn't paying attention too well.

Yue and Sakura were already in front of him, fists cocked back for punches. Yue's was coated with lightning.

_[Ten minutes later]_

"I yield," Jiraiya said as he bowed before the two girls. He didn't know that his Tsunade-hime had daughters! Well, daughters in spirit anyway...

"Jiraiya...Where have I heard that name before?" Yue asked herself. She gave up when she felt a headache coming on. "Hey pervert! What can you do?"

Jiraiya shot up. He knew better than to piss off a woman who hated perverts and could punch that hard. "HAI! I can use many jutsu, roughly a thousand. I use a special taijutsu style taught to me by the toads and I am a master of seals."

"Seals?" Sakura asked. She knew of them, but seal masters were rare. It was a great opportunity to learn about the obscure art. Most shinobi just used storage scrolls.

"Can you fix a seal?" Yue asked.

"I guess," Jiraiya said with a shrug, "I have to know about it first."

Yue thought of that strange seal on Sasuke's neck, but pointed at Naruto instead. "He has a seal on his stomach that seems to have been messed up recently. Take a look at it." Sasuke deserved that damn seal. Besides, Kakashi was more than willing to assist the brat with almost everything.

"Hai!" Jiraiya saluted and went over to Naruto. He looked at the seal and recognized it instantly. He then recognized Orochimaru's five elements seal. The way the elements seal was placed, it blocked the openings for the Eight Trigrams seal, stopping Naruto from accessing the Kyūbi's chakra. Because of this, it caused his system to go into a form of silent withdrawal, screwing his control over big time. "I'm going to fix this seal now," Jiraiya warned Naruto. He slammed his fingers into Naruto's stomach, eradicating the five elements seal. Luckily, it had been a weak, temporary seal to start off with. "Try water walking again," Jiraiya suggested.

Naruto stepped onto the water and didn't sink. With his control restored to its usual level, Naruto jumped up and down on the water in joy.

"Don't get happy yet Naruto, I still have other things to teach you before the finals," Yue told the ecstatic blonde.

"I know!" Naruto cheered.

"Hey kid," Jiraiya called, "want me to teach you some stuff? I know a really powerful jutsu that you may like..."

"Hey!" Yue growled, "I'm teaching him! Go find some other kid to corrupt!"

"Yue's right," Naruto said as he got to the shore and started putting on his now dry clothes, "she was teaching me first. She is going to teach me how to counter the Jūken!"

"Oh really?" Jiraiya smirked, "how is that? Know a Hyūga willing to spar with Naruto?"

Yue shook her head. "I have a technique similar to the Jūken. It's crude as hell and doesn't work the same way, but it can invade the chakra system the same way."

Jiraiya looked at her oddly. "W-what?"

"This," Yue said. She held her right hand up as lightning sparked on her hand. "I never bothered to name it, but I've been able to use it since I first molded chakra."

"Does it even work?" Jiraiya asked.

He should never have asked.

Yue delivered a hard straight to his jaw. "You tell me, since I struck you with about twenty of these now."

Jiraiya blinked. _'Quite an effective jutsu...OW!'_ He held his cheek as pain flared through it. He glanced at the girl, wondering if she knew about this other effect. "Did you know that it also makes the victim extremely sensitive to the electrical strikes?"

Yue blinked as her right ear twitched. Jiraiya decided that was her version of a shrug.

"Well, that certainly is a great way to teach him counters to the Hyūga's Jūken, but it pales in comparison to what I want to teach him," Jiraiya bragged.

"What could be better than experience against a rare form of ninja combat, not to mention that it is good for what's headed his way?" she asked.

"Summoning jutsu," Jiraiya stated.

Yue shut up. She couldn't summon at all. Anko had tried to get the whole team to summon snakes, but it never worked with Yue. In fact, her name and blood never stuck on the contract, it just rolled off. She figured her demon blood interfered with the jutsu, just like it did many others. Anyways, who ever heard of a demon child that could summon?

"How about this," Jiraiya offered. He then laid out a plan where he would instruct Naruto for the afternoon and Yue would have him for the mornings. When Yue pointed out that her electrical strikes would chew up Naruto's chakra like no tomorrow, Jiraiya said he didn't mind since it would help him out too. This meant that Yue had both Naruto and Sakura during the morning, then just the pinkette for some of the afternoon before Yue sent her off to Kurenai for genjutsu training. Of course Sakura would be given time off to rest. The girl's chakra reserves were extremely small and hard to cultivate. Yue figured that Sakura would have enough chakra to produce a single shadow clone, though she would be heavily drained afterwards, in two or three months if she kept up with the exercises, not dieting and proper rest. In the long run, it would benefit Sakura greatly.

_[One month later]_

Everyone except three people were present for the start of the grand tournament: Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto and Kazeneko Yue.

"Well, let's start this tournament!" the new proctor, Shiranui Genma, said. "Before we begin, Kinuta Dosu is no longer in the tournament, meaning that the winner of match four will be facing Kazeneko Yue, if she is present when the time comes." He adjusted the senbon in his mouth. "Will everyone other than Uzumaki Naruto and Hyūga Neji leave the field." Everyone but Neji left.

Genma sighed. With things being the way they were, it looked like four matches wouldn't happen.

Without warning, a massive burst of flames and lightning erupted from the center of the arena. Everyone shied away in fear and shock. When the flames died down, Kazeneko Yue and Uzumaki Naruto were standing side by side in the center of a flaming Konoha symbol. A wire was threaded through a series of kunai, the end of the wire in Yue's mouth, which made up the flaming symbol. Naruto had a new outfit.

The crowd burst into applause. Never before had anyone entered so dramatically. The shinobi all took in Naruto's new appearance. He wore a black shirt with a dark red Konoha symbol on the back, an orange spiral pattern stitched into the left shoulder of the shirt. The sleeves of his shirt ended at his elbows. His black pants had a thin band of dull gold down the sides with an orange band on the bottom. He wore dark blue shinobi sandals. A single weapon pouch was tied onto his right leg over some bandages. He wore bandages on his forearms and hands, much like Lee.

"Now who are you two?" Genma asked.

"Uzumaki Naruto," the blonde said as he smiled. Despite his (forced) wardrobe change, he was still a goof at the core.

"Kazeneko Yue," the girl said before shunshining up to the box reserved for waiting competitors.

"Well, that means we can begin this tournament," Genma muttered.

Neji was smirking the whole time. "No matter how much you train, you are still fated to lose to me today, Uzumaki," Neji stated, "you should have learned from Lee's example and given up."

"You don't know me and you can't see everything!" Naruto shouted back, "I'll make you pay for what you did to Hinata and saying that Bushy Brows and his efforts were useless!"

"Begin!" Genma shouted as he got out of range.

Neji decided that he needed to finish this quickly so his match against Garra or Sasuke, matches whose end was not visible to him, would draw closer. He moved forward and struck at Naruto's arms and legs, disabling him. Not too surprising, Naruto poofed out of existence. "How utterly foolish," Neji said as he closed his eyes, **"Byakugan."** With his dōjutsu, he figured he could tell the difference between a clone and the real one. "Dammit," he grunted to himself. They were shadow clones, meaning they also possessed chakra pathway systems as well, making them indistinguishable from the original. If that wouldn't work, his next move would.

With an unseen signal, the clones rushed at the Hyūga. Within a second, the attackers were gone. Neji became a blur as he struck repeatedly at the clones and dispelled each one with a single strike to the throat.

_'Neji! If any of those were the real one, those blows would have killed him!'_ Guy thought in horror. Was his unyouthful 'student' so strong in his beliefs that he would kill others? He had nearly killed the Hyūga heiress, knowing full well he would be executed on the spot if she had died. Guy remembered a little over two years ago how close the younger Neji had come to killing Yue due to her insulting him. While Guy never learned what Yue had said that day, she did defeat the Hyūga genius by electrocuting him until he couldn't move.

Neji broke through the stream of clones that Naruto had been creating and drove an open palm strike into Naruto's chest, the very same move that nearly destroyed Hinata's heart. "It is finished," Neji muttered. To his shock, Naruto grabbed his arm and drove a sharp elbow blow into Neji's face, staggering him.

"Counting someone out that fast is stupid, genius," Naruto mocked. He backed off as he summoned more shadow clones.

In the box, Temari couldn't help but ask her question. "That little brat... How did he stand up to that blow?"

Yue chuckled. "He tried to, but couldn't learn my raiton from me in a month's time. He did learn how to defend against it though." The others looked at her in wonder. A genin teaching another genin their techniques, knowing full well they might be used against her. What was she thinking?

Neji was back to dispelling clones that Naruto kept sending his way. It was infuriating and tedious. Without this jutsu, the battle would have ended long ago.

Neji broke through again and rushed at Naruto again. He had a sneaking suspicion that the blond was using that freak's twisted abilities. He knew of the weak point to it though and went for it. He jabbed twice, aiming for Naruto's neck.

"Got you!" a Naruto 'clone' said from Neji's left. **"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu – Heki!"** he shouted as ghost-like clones flew off of him, solidifying as they came forward. Neji was kicked four times by the clones, then punched back by the original.

Guy was blazing with his flames of Youth, scaring civilian and ninja alike. "Yue-kun strengthened Naruto-kun's flames of Youth with her own!" he roared. Naruto had, without knowing it, used the Dynamic Entry just then. That meant there was still hope for Neji and Tenten to realize the wonders of Youth! (In Guy's mind)

Paying no heed to the raving madman in the audience, Naruto kept up his clone assaults on Neji, throwing in a few bursts in as well to keep the older boy off balance. He wanted to push Neji to his limits, all so he would reveal his entire hand to Naruto. He had done a similar thing with Yue during their training and paid for it when thirty clones were fried mid-strike after she used a jutsu to defend herself. She had called it 'Raiton: Hiraishin.' It was also part of a strategy that Yue said was extremely effective against Neji. Quite simply, you had to piss the boy off for him to start making mistakes.

Neji was thoroughly angered now. No matter how much the Uzumaki struggled, his fate was to lose. It was time to end it. He prepped himself and waited for the right moment, letting all the clones pile atop him so he could get them all it one strike. **"Hakkeshō Kaiten!"** he shouted as he spun, releasing chakra in the form of a spinning sphere to eradicate the pesky clones. When he ceased the attack, Naruto's foot met with his jaw, knocking him away again as more clones appeared. Neji responded with another Hakkeshō Kaiten.

Up in the stands, Asuma smiled to himself, thinking that Kakashi had finally gone and taught all of his students evenly and properly.

Naruto decided he had taken enough out of Neji to risk a taijutsu battle that didn't involve surprise attacks from his clones. Truth be told, he didn't really like his current method of battle. While it was true that Neji could kill him in a single blow or just scrape part of Naruto away with that kaiten of his, Naruto would consider it an empty victory if he didn't land a couple blows of his own.

Neji saw Naruto coming and smirked to himself. "You're in my range now," he muttered as he assumed a stance. Next thing Naruto knew, all his tenketsu had been struck and sealed by a Jūken technique that Neji called Hakke Rokujūyon Shō. Not even the defences he had built up could deter the attack.

"You can forfeit now," Neji informed Naruto as he stood over the wounded genin, "I have sealed the tenketsu of your body, rendering you unable to use chakra. Fate chose this path for you, now walk along it."

"Take your fate and shove it where the sun don't shine," Naruto grunted as he got on his hands and knees.

"You can't escape fate. Once a person is born, everything about them, family, potential, every miniscule part of their life is decided," Neji looked down on Naruto, "this is the limit fate has placed on you."

Naruto managed to get to his feet, though it was a struggle just to stand up. It looks like he had no choice but to rely on that bastard fox's power again. Before that, he had to know what Neji's problem was. "What is all this about fate and destiny? Why are you so angry with Hinata?"

Neji scowled, not a major feat considering that he was almost always frowning. "As if someone like you can begin to comprehend fate and the path it dealt me."

"Try me," Naruto shot back.

Neji's scowl got worse as he took off his headband, showing him a seal on his forehead. "This is the birdcage seal that all Branch family members of the Hyūga have branded on them. With a single hand seal, a terrible pain is forced into our heads. With enough time, it will kill us."

"So you are pissed off because of that?" Naruto asked. If that was the case, how about a seal on your stomach that contained the most powerful demon alive, the very same demon that decided that the village you lived in was a great place to start a massacre? If that wasn't bad enough, how about everyone treating you like you were the monster sealed within you?

"No, I can deal with the seal on me head, but what I can't stand is the Main family and their way of using us branch family members." Neji then told Naruto of his father's death to cover for Hinata's father. Since they were twins, the Hyūga could easily send the branch family member with a sealed Byakugan to appease the Raikage. His main point of this was all that decided which brother went to which house was five minutes, the same amount of time between the births of Hinata's father and Neji's father.

"That it?" Naruto asked once the tale was finished. "Now I understand all your talk about fate and destiny."

"Hard to believe, but I guess even a loser like you can understand when it is explained well enough," Neji replaced his headband, "does this mean you accept your loss?"

"All this talk of fate and destiny is just a cop out, you coward!" Naruto shouted.

"What?" Neji gasped.

"You say all that, but all I hear is a coward making excuses and whining in a corner," Naruto said as he stood up and started to mold chakra, or attempt to anyway.

"I told you, your tenketsu are sealed!" Neji glared at the boy. Why wasn't he falling? He should be finished already.

"When I become Hokage, I will change the Hyūga and destroy the cage that holds the branch family," Naruto declared as he tried harder.

"What makes you struggle so hard?" Neji asked. He was hoping that all this resisting and talking was wearing Naruto down.

"Because I was called a loser," Naruto said evenly. He finally found it. _'Pay your rent, stupid fox!'_

Neji watched as chakra started flowing through Naruto's pathways again. To his horror, the chakra turned red and burned through his pathways, forming into a monster of some sort. "W-what are you?" Neji gasped in fear. His byakugan actually hurt from seeing that chakra. What scared him was that it was blood red and twined around Naruto like...tentacles or tails of some sort...nine of them. He didn't notice the blood start to slip from his tear ducts.

"Here I come!" Naruto cried out as he rushed forward. Neji struck Naruto when he was close enough, but his Jūken strikes backfired and just burned the tips of his fingers, sealing his own tenketsu. Naruto struck Neji, then tore into him with fast punches and kicks. He paused and summoned a single shadow clone behind Neji, then both continued their rapid barrage. He repeated this twice, making a total of three clones and the original wailing away at the Hyūga. "It's over!" the Narutos declared. They all struck at once, two sandwiching Neji between their fists while the other two crushed him between their kicks. Naruto dispelled the clones and punched Neji away.

Both were on the edge and a single attack would decide everything. Neji was low on chakra and Naruto had his own chakra back, but it was heavily depleted.

They ran at each other and struck at the same moment, much like Sakura and Ino had done during the prelims. Naruto was knocked back into the crater of Neji's first Kaiten. "It looks like I managed to win," Neji panted. Naruto exploded into a cloud of smoke, right before the real one erupted from the ground and smashed Neji in the jaw. Once he landed, Neji attempted to sit up, but couldn't. It was a total loss.

"Winner: Uzumaki Naruto!" Genma declared. Naruto started jumping around happily, making many wonder where he got that bottomless stamina from.

"Naruto...What gave you such strength? What makes you fight so hard?" Neji asked as they waited for the medics to arrive.

"I failed the academy test three times you know, though I passed a 'makeup test' the third time," Naruto looked up, "it is my worst skill: the Bunshin no jutsu... But I found someone who believed in me and steadily made friends." He looked down at Neji. "You didn't just lose to me, you lost to me and the strength my friends have lent me. It is like the old man says; you are only truly powerful when you are protecting something or fighting for something other than yourself."

Neji remembered when he was fighting Hinata. She had been weak, but she had also been far stronger than ever before. Could she have been fighting for someone other than herself? The medics picked him off the ground and carted him off to a medical ward where his entire world would be flipped on its head.

"Well, time to move onto the next match!" Genma shouted, riling up the crowd, "will Aburame Shino and Kank-"

"I forfeit!" Kankuro shouted. He had to keep his weapons a secret for the invasion that Kazekage-sama had planned.

Genma chewed on the end of his senbon in irritation. According to the rules of the tournament, Uchiha Sasuke had two minutes to appear.

It was almost two minutes past when a buzz sounded in his ear from the radio he wore. "Wha- but the rules... Fine, I understand," Genma muttered back. Figures that would happen. "We have decided to make the Uchiha Sasuke VS Garra match the last one to give him time to arrive," he called up, " Will-"

Temari jumped over the rail and used her fan as a glider to get to the arena floor. She dramatically blasted a strong gust up at the crowd. "Get down here Nara!" she shouted.

"You heard her, get on down there!" Naruto cheered before knocking the lazy boy over the rail to fall down to the arena floor, where he lay and stared up at the sky. "Troublesome blond," he grumbled at Naruto. Temari took it the wrong way and attempted to split the pineapple -I mean- Shikamaru's head with her fan. Shikamaru had seen it coming before she even thought of it and threw two kunai at the wall, then used them as posts so he was out of her normal reach. Genma started the match.

In the eyes of many, it was exciting and boring at the same time. Shikamaru was boring, Temari was exciting. Temari proved to be quite intelligent despite her hasty nature and hot headed streak. She figured out the maximum range of Shikamaru's shadow jutsu, but didn't realize he could add more shadows to increase the range. It became a game of cat and mouse until Shikamaru caught the girl with a feint, using the tunnel Naruto dug to capture the blonde kunoichi from behind.

That was when he incurred numerous people's anger. He walked up to Temari as she walked up to him, completely weaponless and vulnerable to attack.

And he forfeited.

Suffice to say, Ino would be yelling his ear off for the next little while, if her voice getting down to the arena floor as if she were there herself was any proof. Shikamaru went back up to lazily watch the next match.

"Well then, will Kazeneko Yue come do-" Genma started. Yue landed on the ground with a sharp crack and a shower of embers. Genma sighed to himself. Yue liked switching what element she combined with her shunshin randomly. It was fire this time.

"I forfeit!" Temari shouted, causing Yue to trip on nothing and face fault. There was no way Temari could fight again, especially against someone of Yue's speed. In the end, she would waste all her chakra defending herself and most likely be knocked out too, rendered useless for Kazekage-sama's invasion.

Genma wanted to go ask Gaara if he was a coward as well. It seemed like Suna had lost its spine. "Then that means that Uchiha Sasuke has two minutes until he is disqualified," Genma shouted. Yue, angry that she had lost the chance to fight, took out a kunai and started scratching pictures in the sand. They sucked.

The two minutes was just about to end when another interruption occurred.

A furious swirl of leaves blew from just in front of Genma. "I have a suggestion to appease the crowd for the time being."

Genma sighed. _'Who is this joker now?'_

**A/N~**

**Hah! What just happened? Oh right, Sasugay shocked me. I'm going to make the little prick pay for that later. I've decided to up the level of pain Yue will dish out later.**

**To all my fellow Canadians, happy Thanksgiving Day.**

**To all Americans, my largest reader group, happy Columbus Day.**

**Before I forget, Happy Birthday to Naruto!**

**Now onto some serious news. I got one hell of a sore throat and ear infection plus a bit of the flu. Constant headaches, inability to regulate body temperature, high fever and sleeping for about sixteen hours is what I've had to deal with all Sunday. Due to this, I got absolutely no work done on my fics. I don't know if it will be gone by tomorrow, but it pisses me off that I couldn't do any writing.**

**BDG420:** Hahaha. I didn't notice during my checking, but I did fix the errors.

**9-tailed reaper:** Fixed the error, as you may have noticed. Noob mistake and I'm allowed to make a few. As for the order...I don't know, I just wanted to give Naruto number 1 for some reason. Probably because senbon dick got #1 in the popularity poles so often. I'll switch the order up later.

(Looks away and whistles after reading about Anko finding out about Yue liking Ino)

**Sky Zephyrus:** Yeah, Sakura will mellow out soon enough. What's more shocking is what happens on the roof of the hospital. Yeah, there will be NaruSaku moments, but Yue/Ino will be kind of... I can't say anything without Sasuke shocking me again. You'll see later.

**Auctor:** Yugito dies in this fic, just like in canon. And mafia? Yue is somewhat above that. You'll see. And yes, yuri harem!

**Thedarkpokemaster:** Nope. This character has even fewer appearances than Anko and Tenten. I will tell you that Tenten does **NOT** hook up with Neji. Never saw how that would happen. He is still as cheerful as a mausoleum in Part II, though he is a bit better than in Part I.

**Fanficreader71:** That is one of four bits that chronicles Yue's creation. Two will be placed in Part II. The last one for Part I will be revealed near the end of Sasuke's betrayal.

**SuperNeos2:** Thanks, but old habits die hard. As for Choji's nosebleed, I always figured he was the type who would react that way to that kind of thing in Part I. His world consists of food, not girls kissing each other and stuff. Just wait till Part II. He pulls an Iruka!

**Twintech 2:** I don't need luck, just cinnamon sticks!

**Okami-naruto101:** I-I get that a lot... ;0_0

**Firestar001:** Wrong again! I do have to admit that the kitten cuddling with the cat would be hot. Add in Yue's wives...SPURT! (Blood sprays onto monitor and keyboard from YuYuIno? images)

Special! Yue will answer some questions after the next chapter. What I mean is you can submit a question or two and Yue will answer, without spoiling the story. For now, I need some tissues.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: The Fourth Great Clan

**Disclaimer: If I own Naruto, nobody told me anything!**

Genma turned and saw a young man that was about fourteen years old. He wore the standard chūnin uniform and had a long sword on his back. His black hair and blue eyes clashed. His forehead protector had been reworked to become a belt.

"Who are you?" Genma asked.

The young man smirked. "Ruuko Kai," he stated.

Up in the stands, Sakura turned to the nearest senior ninja, Kurenai and Asuma. "I've heard of the Ruuko before...but I can't remember much about them other than Yue keeps saying she is of that clan too."

Asuma turned to the girl. "When Konoha was founded, there were four clans that held more power than all the other clans. They were the Senju, Uchiha, Hyūga and Ruuko clans. Of course, only the Hyūga really lasted the test of time. The Ruuko fell the fastest due to their small size." He didn't bother mentioning the oppression they suffered since Sakura was, by Iruka's admittance on her graduation report, a very inquisitive girl. She would probably know more about the Ruuko next week then even the Ruuko themselves.

"Really?" Sakura asked, shocked. How did she forget about a whole clan that was there for the founding of Konoha? She would later find out that records of the Ruuko were erased at the request of the Uchiha.

"The Ruuko are disliked because they are related to the Uchiha and Senju," Asuma said.

Kurenai never knew that. "How are they related?"

Asuma lit a cigarette. "Long before Konoha was founded, a Senju man and an Uchiha woman fell in love with each other. Due to the clans having a bitter history, they were forced apart. They decided to rebel and eloped. Two generation later, the Ruuko, their descendants, returned and demanded a place amongst the clans."

"Wait! Do you mean that they have the Sharingan?" Kurenai asked. That might explain why they were hated by the Uchiha clan.

Asuma shook his head. "For some odd reason, the Kekkai Genkai didn't get passed onto the children of the two lovers, but their eyes are better than normal, suggesting at least that trait passed on. Ruuko have been known steal jutsu and taijutsu, but it takes them some time to do so." He sighed. "I got a little off topic though. Much like the other clans, the Ruuko proved to be specialists when it came to being shinobi."

"Clan members are specialists? How so?" Sakura asked.

"Well, the Uchiha are ninjutsu specialists, the Hyūga are taijutsu masters, the Senju were natural born leaders and possessed talent in all areas. The Ruuko were also skilled with taijutsu and ninjutsu, but they preferred mixing kenjutsu and taijutsu together." Asuma looked down. "To put it plainly, that kid is probably one of the strongest sword masters in all of Konoha."

"So that means Yue is skilled too?" Sakura asked.

Asuma shook his head again. "Yue was adopted into the clan...as a slave/pet. Her talents with taijutsu and kenjutsu are likely due to her demonic heritage."

Sakura was sickened. She knew that some clans could be cruel, like the Hyūga and their bird cage seal, but to adopt a child to enslave them? And as a pet, not a person? That was beyond horrible.

Down in the arena, Yue was shivering. Nothing good came from Kai. Just seeing him caused her heart to constrict in fear.

"And what is your suggestion?" Genma asked. Truthfully, he just wanted to get on with the rest of the tournament, Sasuke and the council be damned.

"Give Uchiha Sasuke another extension," Kai stated calmly.

"Not happening. If I give him another extension, we will be entering the second round. Only Uzumaki Naruto and Aburame Shino have proven they have the skill, Garra will pass even if he isn't capable. We need the battles to flow smoothly," Genma said to the boy. He honestly wondered why Yue had been given a pass. It wasn't the council's doing, it was an order from the Hokage himself.

"How about I fight Kazeneko Yue for now, to pass the time until Uchiha Sasuke arrives?" Kai suggested.

"No. You are not in the tournament, you are already a chūnin and we will need Yue for the next set," Genma stated. This kid was getting on his nerves.

"I will try not to injure her too much, not that it will matter much anyways," Kai said as his polite mask fell off, "not like anybody is interested in seeing a twisted, freak orphan fighting anyways."

Yue backed up a half pace. Kai had never made it a secret that he hated her. He had often thrown rocks and stuff at her during her youth. She wasn't able to defend herself...even now...

Genma was about to tell the boy to leave when his headset buzzed again. "What? Are you sure Hokage-sama? Alright, I understand." Genma hated when the council got its way. "For the time being, Uchiha Sasuke will be given another extension!" The crowd started getting angry. The fight they wanted was the Uchiha VS Garra fight. The others were just appetizers. "Until he arrives, Kazeneko Yue and Ruuko Kai will fight!"

That got the crowd going again, but in a positive way. A fight involving a member of a great clan was always exciting. They pitied the poor girl that was on the opposite end, there was no way she could win. The blonde boy, whose name many had already forgotten, had been an incredible fluke that would most likely never happen again.

"Begin!" Genma shouted as he dodged back.

Kai rushed forward, dragging his sword out as he came forward. When in range, he swung hard at Yue's shoulder. His blade only cut air because Yue dodged it and ran out of range again. "What's the matter, kitty? Afraid of my sword?" Kai taunted.

Yue glared at him, then she backed up again.

Kai sneered. "Thought so, freak." He charged again, swinging the blade. Yue hit the dirt in time to avoid the deep slash that travelled for about ten feet along the wall. "Draw your swords and face me!"

Yue scrambled away and dodged another slash that tore a shallow trench in the arena floor.

Up in the stands, Sakura blinked at the sight. "W-what is he doing?"

Asuma put his cigarette out. "Wait... those attacks are infused with chakra! I thought it was just a temporary match!"

"What do you mean?" Kurenai asked.

"Exactly what it looks like!" Asuma exclaimed, "Kai doing his best to kill her!"

Sakura had been bothered from the very start of the fight. "Why isn't Yue fighting back?"

"Because she isn't allowed to."

The people turned to see a tall, thin, severe man sitting there in a dark blue kimono. His black hair hung down to his shoulders and his piercing blue eyes stared through his lank hair at the murder attempt that was called a match. "The laws I placed upon Yue state that she may never harm a Ruuko, even if it causes her death," he stood up and walked forward, "she could easily defeat my son if she used the power that her blood gave her...but I kept her heritage from her, afraid of her using it to get the revenge that she would rightfully be entitled to."

"Yue would never do that!" Sakura shouted at the man, "she doesn't hold grudges against anybody! She never even told us about how you Ruuko treated her!"

The man looked at Sakura. "What is your name, child?"

"Haruno Sakura," she answered.

"I am Ruuko Urami, Ruuko clan head and Kai's father," the man stated as he walked to the railing, "and now I must atone for mistakes I have made for most of my adult life."

Yue was worried. The techniques were getting too difficult to dodge. If even one hit her, she would be too badly injured to move anymore. Knowing Kai, he would 'accidentally' hit her in a vital area, killing her. Either that or she would be sliced in two. Wait, both resulted in death! She was so screwed!

"Kazeneko Yue!"

The demon girl looked up in fear. Staring down at her was Urami, the same man who left her in a dungeon, made it so she didn't know how to speak until she joined the academy at five, the very same man who tried his best to make Yue die by poisoning her food constantly. She knew what was coming; the command to stop dodging...

"Draw your blades and defeat my son!" he called down, "I will tell you the truth of your parents when this is all over!"

Kai was killing himself laughing. "Good one Father. Give the demon some hope before I cut her down like the animal she is." He rushed at the girl, intent on cutting her head off. He was a Ruuko, a demon slayer, it was his right to slay her.

CLANG!

He blinked. Yue's swords were out and holding his sword back with ease. "Y-you bitch!" he cried as he pushed off the girl, "you drew your swords against me! The laws state that I am to execute you! Nothing can save you anymore!" He took the first step to kill the girl.

Yue rushed forward and with a quick flick of her left wrist, made Yang bounce his blade away. She delivered a kick through his defences, then drove the handle of Yin into Kai's nose, finishing off with a left handed sweep of Yang to cut his right thigh. She jumped back to avoid any possible retaliation.

"Fuck!" Kai roared as he held his broken nose and his slashed thigh. What gave her, a mongrel born from a demonic whore and her sick human lover, the right to strike him, her master! "I don't care anymore! I will have your head!" He rushed forward, sword held forward while held near his right shoulder, intent on driving his sword through her neck with a stab. "You will die, just like your bitch of a mother!"

It happened in slow motion for him. The girl stabbed Yang before her as she rushed forward. The serrated sword was slightly tilted while facing his down. They connected.

And his sword was shattered into fragments.

He watched in horror as his sword broke apart from her sword. The way it shattered...he knew it too well.

"**Sword Slayer..."** Kai mumbled in mild shock. How had this- this pathetic demon child learn one of the Ruuko techniques? Did she copy it? No, neither he nor his father ever practised in her view, so how?

"Don't insult my mother!" Yue roared as she smashed her elbow into his sternum in a full body impact. He fell back and started to get up, but the girl landed on his stomach as she shoved him back down. He got one look at her face and he wanted to beg for mercy.

All he got was her fists.

She battered him. She abandoned everything. Her style. Guy's style. Taijutsu. Kenjutsu. Even Naruto's brawling style could be called better than what the girl used. It was blind, hatred fuelled, back of the school during grade two bashing. While not too effective, her natural strength made it more than enough to leave him barely lucid with bruises and cuts all over him.

Genma stepped forward. "Enough!" he shouted, "don't make me take you down!"

Yue shot a glance at Genma, one he swore would have struck him dead if possible, then she stopped hitting the boy. Before anyone could get him out of there, Yue grabbed the collar of his flak jacket, yanked him up and slammed her forehead into his with enough force to knock him out and put cracks in the ground beneath his head as it was forced two inches down into the dirt. "Next time you try anything with me," she growled as she stared down at him, "I will tear you into so many pieces that not even Senju-sama could begin to figure out what you were."

Kai was picked up and taken away by medics. The crowd was muttering amongst themselves, wondering if the great clans were starting to lose their power.

Yue glanced up at Naruto, then Sakura. She smiled and gave them a thumbs up before she rushed at the wall to get to the competitors box. Instead, she slipped off and landed on her head, much like Naruto had done in Wave. She shook herself off and took the stairs instead, running up them on all fours.

Genma watched the girl go and wondered when that glowing purple symbol appeared on the back of her clothes. Ah, no matter. Sasuke had two minutes. Again.

Just before the time ran out, a swirl of leaves blew around. Once they cleared, it revealed Sasuke and Kakashi back to back. Sasuke was wearing a black version of his old outfit in addition to elbow braces. His hair seemed a bit longer too.

"I hope we aren't too late," Kakashi said.

Genma chose to ignore the jōnin and focused on the genin. "Would you be Uchiha Sasuke?"

"Yes," Sasuke stated.

Before Genma could call him, Garra appeared down on the arena floor with a swirl of sand.

"Now that both competitors are here, we can start the final round of the first heat!" Genma shouted.

The crowd went insane.

"Did you see how they appeared? Genius!" a man shouted to the person sitting next to him, who happened to be Sakura, "this is sure to be the best fight yet!"

Sakura nodded, wondering if the man had forgotten the fire show Yue put on or the battle between Naruto and Neji, Shino and Zaku, Shikamaru and Temari, or more recently, Yue and Kai. She knew why: it was an Uchiha who was fighting. This is what they came for from the very beginning. To them, the other fights, no matter how fantastic, would pale in comparison. Sasuke could beat Garra by a kicking him in the groin and the crowd would say it was the highlight of the tournament. Nobody else mattered.

The fight commenced, many noticing that Sasuke had built up his speed as well as having trained with his sharingan. As far as anyone who had seen him fight before, he was only faster and more accurate.

"Hmm," Asuma hummed as he stood next to Kakashi, "you really didn't train him as much as Naruto, did you?"

"What?" Kakashi asked. He really didn't know what was going on. He hadn't been paying attention to anything but the fight.

"I was talking about-" Asuma began.

"KAAAA-KAAAA-SHIIIIIIII!" Guy shouted as he rushed at Kakashi, blazing with his flames of youth. He halted behind his long time rival. "I knew that you would have Yue assist Naruto in nurturing his bright and powerful flames of youth!"

"Who did I train more than Sasuke?" Kakashi asked, completely ignoring his 'rival.'

"GAH! Your coolness is too much sometimes!" Guy shouted. He was, as expected, ignored.

"You had Yue, one of your genin, teach another genin on your team?" Asuma asked, not believing anything he just heard.

"I guess so," Kakashi said with a shrug.

Asuma wasn't happy at all. "I guess we know who the better ninja is...and sensei too..."

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked. He felt guilty about abandoning Naruto, but there was no way Naruto could have beaten Neji that easily, if at all. He even told his fellow jōnin this.

Asuma chuckled humorlessly. "Naruto pummelled Neji into the ground," the smokin' jōnin explained, "I should have known that you wouldn't take the time to train Naruto. Why the hell did I believe, even for a second, that you wouldn't play favourites."

Kakashi was stunned. Him, Sasuke and Yue were all speed types. Naruto was a strength/stamina type. In addition to all that, Yue was actually a kenjutsu type as well while, from Kakashi's observations, Naruto seemed to prefer taijutsu, only using ninjutsu as a diversion. To train someone who is literally your complete opposite was very difficult.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Everyone looked down at the arena floor.

Sasuke had pierced Garra's sand shell, but it cost him. He had used up one of his two chidori of the day to do so and his arm and legs had been stabbed with sand spikes. "Now come out and face-!" Sasuke was cut off as he caught sight of...something through the hole he had blasted through the shell. The shell fell off Garra, revealing the normal genin, though he seemed to be experiencing a migraine if the way he held his head was an indicator. Sasuke also noticed that the shoulder wound he had just dealt was gone.

Temari and Kankuro appeared next to Garra and fled with him. "Hey! Come back here!" Sasuke shouted as he gave chase.

Had he looked back, he would have seen the genjutsu placed on the arena and the explosions as Suna-nin, Oto-nin and a giant three headed serpent started to lay siege to his village.

Kind of short, but that is a good cutoff point. I'm still sick (I can hear the blood flowing in my jugular veins! How cool is that?) and I don't want to glorify Sasuke too much, so I cut a lot of his crap out. Before I forget, change of plans! Itachi will not, I repeat, NOT die in this fic. Itachi is like the Chuck Norris of Naruto. Only Itachi could kill Itachi. In other words, Sasuke is going to get spanked by his onii-chan! Actually, the little queer might like that.

Quick question: Should I also let Tayuya live? Out of the Sound Four, she is the one who seems to have the most humanity left over. If she does live, she will join Konoha later.

**SuperNeos2:** Question has been answered. And Yue says she doesn't like perverts. Unless it is her getting all perverted with her wives!

**thedarkpokemaster:** Wha? Um, I can't decode that. Do I need a higher clearance level or something? What does 'it was a real to me,' mean? Do you mean it was realistic or something? If so, then my minor experience in martial arts and my dabbling with kenjutsu was better than I hoped.

**9-tailed reaper:** I've got an even better, and far more sadistic plan in mind. *whistles*

(a legion of Sasuke fan girls and Yaoi fan girls appear and grab Sasuke)

Hebi-Sasuke: You wouldn't dare!

Excele, grinning evilly while sitting on a throne of brimstone: Hey look! Is that Edward Cullen over there?

(fan girls turn to see the emo vampire wannabe)

Now all Yaoi Fan girls: KYAAAA! Let's get them together!

Edward: Oh god no! Not Uchiha Sasuke! Anyone but Sasuke!

(Edward runs away, taking the rabid girls and Sasuke away)

Excele: Heheh. That takes care of that problem. While I'm here, I don't own Naruto or Twilight. If I did own Twilight, I would have shot myself when I thought of it. Back to the rest of the response. *turns off speaker identifier*

Jiraiya will train Naruto, but he will still be a lazy ass about it. I still think it was the right move to make Naruto do it all on his own. Naruto will not learn how to use a Rasengan on his own because it is strain that makes him do that, not lack of skill. The clone is used to reduce the strain.

Neji loses his BS cop out lines, which is all that talk of destiny and fate. Next time he appears, it is all gone. Especially after the news that accompanies Tsunade's arrival.

Sakura learning an element and non-craptastic moves? Actually, Yue will have far more aggressive versions of the Sakura Fubuki no Jutsu. Sakura still learns it, but it will be used sparingly. Yue is only really trying to boost Sakura's chakra reserves and fix her taijutsu. Sakura will use some genjutsu, but not too much since genjutsu usefulness is virtually nil later on unless it's Tsukuyomi. And Sakura will not learn elemental moves in this fic. She still becomes a medic. And Sakura's signature move is Cherry Blossom Impact, the move where she shatters the ground apart with a punch.

**Sky Zephyrus:** You have to remember that he only had one month with Yue and Jiraiya. Besides, Yue's taijutsu style relies upon her agility and flexibility, two traits Naruto doesn't have. What she mostly taught his was some of Guy and Lee's Goken, evident because he used Dynamic Entry. And all Jiraiya taught Naruto was summoning.

Also, due to Yue having fire, lightning and ? affinities, she couldn't teach Naruto any elemental jutsu. She did help him perfect her **Kage Bunshin - Heki** though. Wait, did I just reveal that she has another secret? Lucky for me Sasuke is 'tied up' somewhere right now. Hehehehe. Whoa! They really tied Sasuke up with Edward. (Shudders) That looks so wrong. (puts the blinds down)

**!Omake!**

**Yue answers!**

Yue: My Turn! Bring on the questions. Wait, just one guy? It's a start...

Firestar001 asks: What would you say/do if you encountered the host of Nibi? How would you react, would you befriend Yugito, would you fight, etc?

Yue: Who's Nibi? Is it something to eat? Wait, Nibi... Oh! A Bijū! I only really know about the Kyūbi, so the only thing I know of Nibi is it has two tails. Why do you ask, is it a dog? If Yugito was nice, I guess we might become friends. Is she cute? *feels the glares of angry wives-to-be* Actually, I don't need to know.

Firestar001 asks: Did your paw ever get into Sasuke's cat-encyclopedia? Or Itachi's?

Yue: (blushes) HENTAI!

Excele: Actually, the Nikukyū Taizen (Paw Encyclopedia) has her mother's paw print in it.

Yue: Mama's paw print is in there? Maybe I should put mine in too. But... (blushes and crosses her arms over her chest) I don't want my hand print to be in a nasty book! (whines) Wait, why would mama's paw print be in there?

Firestar001 asks: What do you think of catnip and yarn?

Yue: Yarn? Where? Where's the yarn? (her eyes sparkle and her tail wags) I like yarn! Especially when its a ball and rolls! Catnip? I'm still a kitten! I don't like that stuff yet.

Excele asks: Hey Yue, nobody asked you how tall you are or how much you weigh. Mind telling us?

Yue: I'm 121.9 cm tall and I weigh 78 lbs.

Excele: So you're exactly 4 feet tall...

Yue: NO! 121.9 cm!

Excele: Like I said, 4 feet.

Yue: Grrrrrrr! (throws a kunai to hit the chair in front of Excele's crotch)

Excele: 0_0; Okay, 121.9 cm tall. Any tool you don't like or can't use well?

Yue: Shuriken! Other than shuriken type weapons, I'm a master of all tools!

(Tenten looks sceptical about that statement)

**!BONUS!**

**Konoha's Two Demons Yue VS Necessary Darkness Yue (Part I edition)-**

=KTD Yue's stats=

Ninjutsu - 3

Taijutsu - 5 [3.5]

Genjutsu - 0

Intelligence - 2

Strength - (3.5) 4.5 [3]

Speed - (3) 5

Stamina – (2.5) 3

Hand seals - 2.5

=ND Yue's stats=

Ninjutsu – 3.5

Taijutsu – 0.5

Genjutsu - 0

Intelligence - 1

Strength – 4.5 [2.5]

Speed - 3

Stamina - 2

Hand seals – 0

Note-

[Stat] = Lowered due to low weight and small size

(Stat)= Before revival of demonic blood

KTD Yue: Hah! I won!

ND Yue: Yue tried her best. Was Yue a good girl? Does Yue deserve pets on the head? Maybe some fishes?

KTD Yue: ...I just lost in the hidden cuteness stat...

Excele: Just in case you don't know, KTD = Konoha's Two Demons. ND = Necessary Darkness.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: The chase

Note: Warning, I skipped a lot. Shino VS Kankuro and Sasuke VS Gaara have been skipped. They are just like in canon, so you aren't missing much. Please excuse any mistakes I make, I didn't check all that well.

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto. Never will unless Hell freezes over. Now where is that thermostat?**

Over ninety percent of those present at the arena fell to the genjutsu. It was quite an obvious one too, but it was very fast acting. Sakura, Ino, Hinata, a few other genin and all of the senior ninja present dispelled it from themselves the instant they noticed it. Genjutsu idiots like Naruto, Yue and Kiba were downed almost instantly. Yue even fell forward so her head noisily banged off the metal railing before she bashed it into the ground with a dull thud. Didn't help her wake up though.

A little while later, Yue shot up and nearly KOed the ANBU who awoke her. "Who-What-When-Where?" Yue babbled.

"Bear. Genjutsu. Twenty minutes ago. Arena," Bear answered.

"Why am I up?" Yue asked. Maybe it was a mission.

"All chūnin and higher level ninja are being awoken first so they can assist in repelling the invaders," Bear explained.

"I'm a chūnin?" Yue tilted her head in confusion. Didn't it normally take a day or two to decide? When it first came to pass, it took four months for Yue's promotion to go through. Damn biased council...

"I'll make this brief," Bear said, "you were never demoted. You were placed on Kakashi's team to monitor him. You were entered into the exams as a genin because Hokage-sama felt something odd about this one."

Yue understood now. It was an espionage mission. She sucked at those unless she believed (read: tricked and/or suckered) her cover to be a reality for her to pull them off. "Who's attacking?"

Bear swallowed hard. "It is Suna and Oto," he turned away, fear in his voice, "it appears that Orochimaru of the Sannin is leading them."

Yue was unable to respond because they were both attacked by Suna and Oto-nin from both sides. The two Konoha ninja's swords lashed out at the attackers.

_[Fourteen minutes ago]_

"Sakura!" Kakashi appeared and knocked out the Suna-nin that had almost struck Sakura down.

"Kakashi-sensei!" The pinkette had never been happier to see her lazy, smut reading sensei.

"I have a mission for you," he said as he tossed a few kunai to foul up a ninja or two, "an A-rank mission." He performed a set of quick hand seals and placed his hand on the back of the sleeping civilian who had been praising Sasuke's less than impressive fight. A poof of smoke later and a small pug with a Konoha forehead protector around its neck appeared. "Take this nin-dog and wake up Naruto and Shikamaru. You and them are to go catch up to Sasuke and assist him in defeating Gaara."

"Why are we going after Gaara?" Sakura asked.

"I overheard a few Suna-nin claiming that Gaara was key to this attack," Kakashi explained, "there's no time! You have to go now!" The silver haired man went and rejoined the main fray.

"Who is this dog?" Sakura asked herself.

The dog was in her face in an instant. "I'm no cute little doggy. I'm Pakkun," the pug said.

"Y-you can talk? And I never said 'cute little doggy'..." the girl said quietly. Figures that the dog was as weird as its summoner.

"Let's go get those two guys," Pakkun said as he jumped over to the stairs leading to lower levels.

Three minutes later, Sakura released Naruto from the genjutsu. He quickly asked Sakura what was going on, but Pakkun explained it all while Sakura went over to the other member of their team.

"Now for Shika..." Sakura stopped in mid sentence when she looked at Shikamaru. It looked like...he was trying to sleep. "Shikamaru...when did you release the genjutsu?" she asked.

Shikamaru, who gave up pretending, rolled over and groaned. "Right away," he muttered.

"Why were you acting?" the pinkette yelled.

"To avoid a troublesome mission," the lazy genius stated. He sighed again. "What is the troublesome mission?"

_[Current time. Forests around Konoha]_

"Why didn't we get Yue too?" Naruto asked as they rushed after Sasuke's trail.

"I don't know..." Sakura said. She had been wondering that herself.

"The girl is a hanyō, a tokubetsu jōnin and has dense chakra. To release her from a genjutsu would require either someone who she has accepted and allows their chakra to flow into her system, someone with an incredible amount of chakra or an ANBU who specializes in genjutsu," Pakkun explained, "when she is released from the genjutsu and has a wide enough window, she may join us."

"So that means we can't count on her showing up," Shikamaru grumbled, "great, just when we could have used someone as powerful as her..."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"Looks at us," Shikamaru said, "we are a dog, an idiot, a kunoichi with no special skills and a slacker."

"We are also being followed. Probably six or seven chūnin or jōnin level ninja," Pakkun said.

Shikamaru, once again, sighed. "One of us needs to be a decoy so the others can get to Sasuke."

Everyone was thinking of various things. "I'll-" Naruto started.

"Guess it's up to me," Shikamaru muttered loud enough to be heard.

"But my Kage Bunshin," Naruto protested.

"You need to get to Sasuke and Gaara," Shikamaru cut in, "When I went to visit Lee, he said something to me before Guy chased him off. He has a demon in him, or so he claims. I don't know why, but after seeing you take down Neji, I feel that you can help Sasuke beat Gaara." The pineapple headed ninja looked back for a moment. "My shadow jutsu were originally designed for decoy and ambushes anyways."

"He's right. We need to get moving if we want to catch up to Sasuke," Pakkun said before leading Naruto and Sakura off on the unseen trail. Shikamaru grabbed some branches and went in a different direction.

_[Stadium]_

Yue jumped at the Oto-nin with a loud, "RAWR!" as she swung her swords up, cutting him into four pieces. On her way down, she twisted around a kunai. Upon landing, she grabbed a Suna-nin and stunned him with a lightning jutsu.

She backed up and encountered the much taller forms of Guy and Kakashi.

"I got fifty. How about you, Kakashi?" Guy asked.

"Hmm. I say about forty-nine?" Kakashi guessed, "I stopped counting a little while ago, so it is probably more."

Yue scowled. Why was it that everything about the two ninja she was near taller than her? It isn't like she enjoyed being 121.9 cm tall.

She was pissed off!

"RAWR! RAWR! RAWR!" the girl screamed as she literally tore through a long rank of enemies, leaving them to bleed to death. When she stopped, she threw her swords forward and impaled two ninja before her. She retrieved her swords and swung her leg backwards, heel first, into the crotch of a ninja. Sadly, it was a male ninja and he swore that his balls didn't descend again until two years later. What made it worse was that it was a fellow Konoha-nin she had hit.

"I think Yue is a bit angry..." Guy muttered.

"SIXTY!" she roared as she cut down her sixtieth foe. She showed no signs of slowing down, unless you counted her running out of nearby enemies to attack.

"What gave you that idea?" Kakashi asked sarcastically. He had to admit that she was doing a good job so far, but.

"Yue! You have to follow-" he called out. The girl glared at him and literally blasted upwards through the roof with a katon, knocking back a number of ninja as she went for the top of the stadium to follow Naruto and Sakura's trail. She noticed her pursuers right away, but decided to try and shake them before being forced to turn on them.

_[Deep part of the forest]_

Sasuke had finally caught up to the Suna-nin. He didn't know or care when Cat Pyjamas managed to split away from the other two. It didn't matter. All that mattered was taking down Gaara. He wanted to see what the deal was with that strange eye he had seen within the sand shell.

"Gaara! We need to move now!" Temari shouted at her brother.

"No...Mother wants it," he grunted.

"Gaara?" Temari asked, right before Gaara smacked her away.

"Give me your blood, Uchiha Sasuke!" Gaara shouted as sand started pouring out of the gourd on his back.

Sasuke smirked, figuring this would be easy for him.

_[Twenty minutes later, same place]_

Sakura and Naruto arrived in time to see Sasuke to eat a number of sand shuriken, knocking him down to a branch of a nearby tree. Sakura instantly rushed over and tried to drag the protesting Sasuke away.

"_**What's the matter, Uchiha Sasuke?"**_ a hideously deformed Gaara shouted, _**"did you finally realize that my existence is more powerful than yours?"**_ Sasuke glared at this genin, wondering where he got off calling him weak. _**"I'll tell you why you are so weak: your hatred! I am stronger because my hatred is stronger,"**_ Gaara preached, _**"love only yourself, hate everything else. That is what gives you true strength!"**_

"Shut up!" Sakura shouted, "how would you know when you haven't tried anything else! For all you know, you're weak because of your hatred!"

Gaara growled as his human arm gripped at his head. _**"Shut up! Mother doesn't want to hear you!"**_ He swung his transformed arm, releasing the sand to grab Sakura and pin her to the tree. The impact knocked her out and groaning wood told the two boys that the sand was slowly crushing her.

"_**You two have thirty minutes before that girl is dead!"**_ Gaara shouted at the two, _**"come at me with all your hatred! Show me your true power!"**_ He jumped at Sasuke again, but Naruto kicked him in the face and sent him sailing away.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, "find a way to free Sakura-chan and get her out of here!"

"What about you?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto bit his lip. "I'll try to buy you guys some time." He took off after where Gaara had gone.

Sasuke looked up at Sakura and the sand arm. How was he supposed to free her when the only jutsu he had capable of cutting the sand apart had been overused already. Sasuke barely had enough chakra to get off the tree he was on alone. "Maybe if I rest up a bit, I can get her down safely," he muttered to himself. He had no other choice.

"_**You were with that delicious little girl!"**_ Gaara shouted, _**"bring her here! The hatred coming off her...It was intoxicating! She must be a powerful existence! I want to erase her!"**_ he swung down at Naruto, missing but smashing the branch apart.

"Yue doesn't use hatred as a source of power," Naruto shot back, "she is like me, drawing strength from those she protects!"

Gaara growled. _**"So you are weak fools then! Let me fight Uchiha Sasuke again! At least he uses his hatred to gain true power!"**_

Naruto realized that he wasn't going to get through to Gaara, not until he stunned him or something. He had an idea of what Gaara had gone through. The way he was talking, it sounded eerily familiar to something Naruto knew about. And that bit about a demon inside him...

"I'll show you what true strength is," Naruto muttered as he drew a kunai and summoned four clones without hand seals, a byproduct of training with Yue. By learning how to defend himself from her electricity, he learned to 'program' his chakra flow since it would be impossible to actively control his guard and fight. Yue helped him, through spars, to program two jutsu for now: Kawarimi and Kage Bunshin. Yue had told him that constant use of a jutsu eventually led to this same ability, but the sparing matches accelerated the appearance of that ability. Of course, the clones were a bit weaker than normal.

It came in handy right about now, because Gaara threw a wave of sand at the branch. Naruto didn't bother saving his clones, he just switched places with a log and was done with that attack. It seemed that he needed something bigger to distract Gaara from his main attack. His aim was the gourd. It was the source of all the sand, so destroying it might make it harder for Gaara to fight and maintain that form.

_[Back with Sasuke and Sakura]_

Sasuke was getting frustrated. His chakra wasn't recovering fast enough for him to use another chidori. At the rate it was recovering, it would take him an hour at the least to produce the same pathetic blade that barely cut Gaara's sand arm off.

He remembered back during an early mission. Kakashi decided to see how they would get through a locked door. He had relocked it each time it was opened, just so he could see the methods. Sasuke, as expected, picked the lock. Sakura did the same, only faster. Naruto had eventually forced the door open. Yue had simply approached the door and drew her sword, then used a jutsu called 'raitou' to stab through the lock with an electrified stab.

_'If only I could do something like that,'_ Sasuke thought. Yue had, grudgingly, explained that one needed a blade (a sword was preferred) and a lightning jutsu to perform that technique. Yue used Raiton: Jibashi as a base for the technique. How she could condense the technique, which Kakashi had explained to him, was a mystery.

Crack!

His gaze snapped up to see the wood start to splinter from the pressure.

"S-Sasuke-kun..." Sakura whined in her nightmare.

Sasuke grit his teeth. Here was a friend of his, begging for his help, and all he could do was sit by and watch her slowly die. It was just like that night, he was powerless to do anything.

_[Naruto VS Gaara]_

Naruto slammed into the trunk of a tree, having been knocked away by a sweep of Gaara's newest weapons: a second transformed arm and a sand tail.

"_**You are weaker than me!"**_ Gaara shouted angrily, _**"die for me so I can hunt down the Uchiha and the girl!"**_

Naruto pulled out his last kunai and explosive tag. He needed a major distraction and a way to make the technique work. He thought about it quickly, then decided to just overload his opponent. That always seemed to work.

"_**Where are you!"**_ Gaara bellowed.

"**Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"** Naruto shouted as 999 clones appeared. Yue had, literally and figuratively, beaten the difference between this version and the original into his skull. It was simple really. Kage Bunshin created quite a few shadow clones, Tajū Kage Bunshin created hundreds at once.

"Let's do this!" his army shouted as they rushed at the momentarily stunned Gaara. They set up like his old rendan, but the scale was much larger. "**Uz-u-ma-ki!**" several clones shouted at they struck the heavy opponent upwards. Then came the others with their fists cocked back. "**Naruto Nisen Rendan!**" the rest shouted as they beat Gaara's new sand body into new shapes. Five clones from the first set of strikes punched Gaara hard, knocking him over to another tree.

"_**GAH!"**_ Gaara shouted in frustration as he reshaped the sand to its original form. _**"Where are you!"**_ he shouted as he slobbered all over the place.

"**Sennen Goroshi!"** Naruto shouted as he slammed the kunai into the spot that would normally be where Gaara's butt was.

In the stands -I mean trees- Temari blushed at the sight of a knife stuck in her brother's 'butt.' Pakkun, hiding in some bushes on the ground, wondered what the idiot was doing now since it sure as hell wasn't a jutsu.

Gaara was not amused. He backhanded Naruto away. Naruto smirked after landing. "Boom," he said loud enough to be heard by everyone present.

Fiss!

Gaara turned and realized what was going on just as the kunai's exploding tag detonated, causing all the sand on his body to destabilize and fall off. The gourd also cracked and fell to the forest floor. _'Damn it! He got me in the weak point of the armor, right under the tail. Whether he meant to do that or not remains to be seen.'_

"Now that the sand armor and your gourd are gone, I have nothing to worry about," Naruto boasted, "get ready to be schooled."

"Not yet," Gaara muttered as he performed the hand seals. His lost sand all started moving again, the broken gourd releasing far more sand than it could ever possibly hold. Naruto, Temari and Pakkun all vacated the area.

After a full two minutes, Gaara was replaced by a giant...raccoon dog? Whatever it was, it was made of sand.

"Now it is all over," Gaara said as he rose out of the mass of sand's head. He held his hands in the ram seal. "Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu," he muttered before falling forward, asleep.

"D-did he just fall asleep? In the middle of a battle?" Naruto asked nobody in particular.

Suddenly, the eyes of the sand beast became less glassy, becoming filled with life. Without warning, it started to thrash around. _**"I'm finally free!"**_ it gleefully roared, _**"Ichibi no Shukaku will bathe this world in blood once more!"**_

Naruto realized it was time to pull out what Ero-sennin taught him. He bit his thumb, summoning up some of the fox's chakra, then slammed his hand down. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted. Just like the time he was falling into the chasm, the titanic form of Gamabunta appeared beneath his feet.

"Kid, why am I he-!" the enormous red toad noticed the giant Tanuki across the way from him. "Looks like Shukaku is back, huh?"

"Shukaku?" Naruto asked.

"Shukaku is a giant Tanuki made from sand. He is a wild beast that only believes in killing," the giant toad drew his tanto and pointed it forward, "you may want to hold on. This could get rough."

_[Sasuke and Sakura]_

"What...the...hell," Sasuke murmured at the sight of the giant sand beast and toad battling it out nearby, too near for Sasuke's comfort. He didn't know what was happening, but he didn't like it.

A shadow covered the surrounding area, making Sasuke look up at the enormous sword falling towards the ground, almost on top of him.

**CRASH!**

"AH!" Naruto shouted from atop Gamabunta's head, "watch out! That's near where Sakura-chan and Sasuke are!"

Gamabunta was going to say something smart, but stopped when he felt a surge of evil chakra from the boy. _'Hard to believe such a small child has the nine-tails sealed in him,'_ the toad thought to himself. "Kid, I just lost my only weapon. I'm going to need your help in stopping that overgrown sand bag."

"What? How can I help _you_?" Naruto asked, emphasis on the you. How could he help Gamabunta?

"As you have noticed, I don't have any claws to hold him down. What I need you to do is help me transform. I don't care what the form is, as long as it has claws I can use. When I have stopped got a hold of him, you go and wake that kid up," Gamabunta explained.

"Wake him up?" Naruto asked.

Gamabunta sighed. "Shukaku is a demon that haunts its container with horrible nightmares so it can eventually take over through madness. You saw that kid's eyes, he probably hasn't slept properly since birth. He used a simple jutsu to put himself to sleep so Shukaku could take over. To fix that, just wake him up with a punch or two."

Naruto understood now and he nodded. He concentrated, wondering what form he should help Gamabunta take. He had nothing until a memory of his childhood came back to him. It was a memory his mind had altered after learning of his burden. He stood there, a young child, as the entire village glared at him as his nine-tailed shadow whipped around behind him. "Henge!" Naruto shouted as he and Gamabunta were wrapped in a cloud of expended chakra.

On that day, the world saw the form of the same fox demon that had once terrorized Konoha twice before. It clashed with the sand demon for a few moments before returning to being a giant toad.

Naruto landed on Shukaku's head and ran at Gaara. Before he could get there, he felt the sand climb up his legs a bit. "Dammit!" Naruto shouted as he ripped his legs free and continued to run forward, using chakra like he was running on water to avoid slowing on the sand. "Wake up Gaara!" Naruto shouted as he grabbed Gaara's head, then repeatedly punched the boy's head. Gaara's eyes shot open, then closed from the repeated blows he was taking.

Sukaku reacted as if he had a blade jammed into his brain. _**"Nooooooo! I finally got out! Not yet, I wasn't finished ye-!"**_ the sand demon wailed before it stopped moving and its eyes returned to being glassy. Gamabunta smiled as he vanished. The Shukaku body started crumbling away.

When the sand body was gone, two boys lay on the ground. One was Gaara and he found that he couldn't move anymore. The other one, Naruto, stayed still for a few moments before he started to drag himself forward using only one arm.

"N-no! Stay away!" Gaara shouted in a panic, he was finished and couldn't fight anymore, "please don't hurt me anymore!"

Naruto had brought himself close enough and looked at Gaara, tears in his eyes. "It hurts doesn't it? The villager's cold glares..." he said.

Gaara blinked. _'Could it be...he's the same as me?'_ Gaara never thought that anyone else in the world could have suffered the way he had.

"I know what it's like growing up in a village that hates you, wanting to just destroy them all," Naruto continued, "but I was lucky and someone acknowledged me. It took time, but I now have people who will stand with me as friends and comrades." He looked at Gaara with sympathy. "You were never so lucky in your own village, but you can count me as a friend. I will never look at you and see Shukaku, just Gaara the Suna-nin." Naruto would have gone on, but he passed out from chakra exhaustion.

Six Suna-nin appeared. Four chūnin, one being female and two jōnin, one male and the other female. "Time to finish this," a few said as they moved to get Naruto, "if we take Konoha's demon, we will be unstoppable." Sand wrapped around the male jōnin's leg, crushing it into uselessness. The other five got close to Naruto, but were interrupted by an unlikely source.

A very familiar sword flew into the ground like a shuriken, but struck with the force of an exploding tag. Once the dust settled, they recognized the blade, even as its owner appeared next to it.

"Kubikirihōchō," one gasped, right before Yue slammed both her feet into his chest in a running missile kick. Yue quickly drew Yin and Yang, jamming them, handle first, into the stomach of the chūnin kunoichi. The petite girl jumped back and ducked behind Kubikirihōchō, using the weapon as a shield to defend against a barrage of shuriken. She threw a kunai, hitting a ninja in the knee and taking him out of the battle. It was then that a series of wind bullets struck the large blade, a few striking her as well. She fell back, her swords all flipping around behind her, repeatedly struck with air bullets til they slammed into distant trees and stuck there.

"Got you," the jōnin kunoichi said. She drew a kunai and prepared to throw it. She never got the chance because Sasuke appeared and kicked the woman in the head, knocking her out. The remaining guys gave up when Sasuke threw a kunai at one of them, right in the stomach.

"Back away or I kill the demons!" the male jōnin shouted as he held kunai to Naruto and Gaara's throats. Even now, the sand was guarding Gaara from the fatal blow, but Naruto wasn't protected at all. "Back away!" he shouted again as the chūnin kunoichi from their group pulled herself over. Within a few moments, she was fit enough to throw Naruto and Gaara over her shoulder and went to leave.

With a jacket and scarf-life forehead protector on her shoulders.

"What?" she shouted as she turned around, seeing Yue without those articles of clothing anymore and grinning, Naruto and Gaara on the ground behind her.

"My turn," Yue growled as she inhaled, pulling what appeared to be mist into her mouth. "**NyaNya Hidama!**" Yue shouted right before spitting a vicious purple fireball at the ninja, almost hitting them. They managed to dodge the unusual katon and the ensuing explosion. A fiercely glowing purple mark appeared on Yue's back. She fell down, grasping at her back as she hissed in pain.

"We got lucky here. You, go collect her too," the broken legged ninja ordered the kunoichi, "if she gives you any trouble, slit her throat wide open."

"B-but sir, she-" the kunoichi started, only to stop when a kunai flew by her face.

"I said get them! Kazekage-sama told us to take any demons that Konoha possessed!" the man snapped.

Without warning, a blast of wind struck the two ninja and sent them flying away. Temari landed next to her brother, looking worried. "Gaara? Are you okay?"

Gaara was silent at first, staring at the Konoha-nin, Naruto specifically, as they tried to help Yue onto her feet. "Yes, I'm fine."

Kakashi appeared and looked at the area around him. Four Sand ninja in various states of injury, Kubikirihōchō and Yue's other swords in tree trunks, Yue on the ground, Sasuke trying to help Naruto onto his feet. His eyes briefly ghosted over the fading purple seal on Yue's back. He looked to Gaara last. "So you won?"

"No. Naruto completely defeated me," Gaara answered, "is it true, is he really...like me?"

Kakashi looked over at the blonde. "Yes. Naruto was ostracized from the entire village, hated by everyone save a small handful of people. He had to fight tooth and nail for every friend he made, every scrap of recognition he got. He would have become like you, but he found a person who accepted him completely and saved him from his darkness and loneliness," Kakashi looked down at Gaara, "if you come after him again, Shukaku or not, I will end you. I have to atone for my mistakes and I will kill to do so."

"Don't worry about that," Gaara said, "I lost against him. I need to find the thing that makes them so strong." A part of him knew, since he had been told. With no prior experience with friends and such, he needed to find it for himself. Gaara looked at Yue. "How can she contain so much hatred?"

Kakashi scratched his covered cheek. "That, I don't know. Must be because, unlike you and Naruto, she was born from a demon and contains their blood. I'll be sure to find out for sure though." The silver haired man then went over and hoisted Naruto and Kubikirihōchō onto his shoulders and had his other student pick up Yue and her other swords before they all left. Sasuke told him about Sakura, Kakashi nodded and sent a shadow clone to pick the girl up.

Kankuro showed up, looking a little worse for wear. "What happened?"

Gaara didn't say anything at first, just stared at the ground. "Temari, Kankuro...I'm sorry."

Both were taken aback by this. So much so that they didn't say anything at first. "I-it's alright Gaara," Temari managed, "we're family, so it's okay."

"Family, huh?" Gaara asked himself.

_[Nearby, in the tree tops]_

"So I see that she managed to return to her true self," a man with a blackened arm noted to himself, even as he winced in pain.

"I still don't see why you find her so interesting. There are plenty of other half demons around," a grey haired teen muttered back.

The man sneered. "You have no idea what runs through her veins, what she really is. I am going to use her for an...experiment. Kukukuku." The two vanished in swirls of leaves soon after.

**A/N~**

In my personal opinion, the end of this chapter is the best thing I have ever written. Next chapter will be a time skip to after the funeral. The search for Tsunade arc is just beginning. And due to popular demand, Tayuya will survive Temari's attack.

-Jutsu Index-

**Raitou** [Lightning Blade] – C Rank, Offensive – A lightning based jutsu that electrifies the blade of a sword. Possesses high cutting power. Simple in nature, but difficult to control. Despite originally using another raiton to create it, Yue no longer requires another raiton to use this jutsu. Yue's first friend assisted in the creation of this jutsu, hence the non-goofy name.

**NyaNya Hidama** [Meow Cat Fireball] – ? Rank, Offensive – A katon developed by Kazeneko Yue, name included. Unlike the Uchiha's Gōkakyū no Jutsu, which is a large ball of stable fire, NyaNya Hidama creates an orb of fire, then releases it before it if fully stabilized. This makes fire escape as it flies, causing the jutsu to resemble a classical fireball. Detonates on contact. Depending on the amount of chakra used, the jutsu can be between high D rank or low B rank in terms of power. Requires no hand seals, so it can't be copied by a sharingan. Often mistaken for a perverted jutsu due to its name.

-Clan index-

Ruuko – The Ruuko clan has ties to both the Senju and Uchiha. Masters of tool combat, particularly kenjutsu. Their arts place them far above any other weapon using ninja. Their skills are much sought after. Fell into decline due to the influence of the Uchiha Police Force.

-Character Index-

Name: Ruuko Urami

Age: 39

Weapon: Double bladed katana

Armor: none

Position: Ruuko Clan Head

Rank: jōnin

Personality: Calm, strong willed, severe

Appearance: Normally wears a dark coloured kimono with a red sash. When he is on a mission, he wears a standard jōnin uniform with his forehead protector wrapped around his left shoulder. Leaves his hair loose at all times.

Notes: Took over the clan after his brother was killed by a rampaging demon. Skilled swordsman. Specializes in weapon destruction. Single father.

Name: Ruuko Kai

Age: 15

Weapon: Katana (shattered by Yue)

Armor: Flak Jacket

Position: None

Rank: chūnin

Personality: Ruthless, cunning, intelligent

Appearance: His civilian clothes are a pair of pants, a shirt and a light jacket. He wears a standard chūnin uniform when on duty. His hair is long, but he has it tied off in a short ponytail.

Notes: Yue's primary source of childhood trauma. Despises anything not human. Talented swordsman. Specializes in crowded battles.

**God Emperor of GAR-halla:** Haven't read beyond Gaara's revival in Part II. Besides, everything suggests that Madara was the greatest Uchiha, and with a Rinnegan, I can see him casting Meteo.

As for Tobi, I don't know. Maybe he was alive at the time of Madara and took his eyes soon after his death. Now that I think about it, he never turns off his sharingan or rinnegan, so he must be an implant like Kakashi. I believe that he somehow managed to split Madara's eyes into two sets, one rinnegan, one sharingan. Either way, the man is intelligent. It also explains why he has never used Susanoo or Amaterasu. As far as I can tell, implants can't use those abilities. He also possesses a time/space jutsu, just like Kakashi.

Whatever. We'll find out who he is later when Naruto, Sasuke, Madara or Kabuto offs him.

**SuperNeos2:** Actually, that was my own personal opinion. Even the Temari VS Lazy Ass fight was much better than Sasuke's fight. All Sasuke did was run around, try a strike or two, then default to the chidori. In other words, it was boring and it showed how much of a failure Sasuke is. It actually took me a few moments to think of a humiliating way for Sasuke to defeat Gaara, humiliating for both of them. Originally, I was going to have Sakura say something along the lines of Sasuke 'firing' Gaara he was in a shell of sand to defend himself, but decided a crotch shot was better. Who would expect a 'noble, powerful' Uchiha to resort to such a vulgar move?

Kai will appear later, though he will be similar to Neji at the time. I actually designed Kai from Part II Sasuke, or Hebi-Sasuke as I call him, and pre-chūnin exams Neji. Basically, he is a full of himself, clans-are-superior, I-am-better-than-almost-anyone jerk wad.

**DarkLordK:** I think you mean Necessary Darkness Yue. Yes, she is cute when she refers to herself in third person. I decided to make that an ongoing thing, though it only shows when she takes a heavy emotional blow, such as someone shaking her resolve.

**9-tailed reaper:** Kakashi is starting to realize he has screwed up a lot, but it is hard to change. I actually did this on purpose for Part II, all so he could start with a fresh slate. Let's just say Naruto gets some training from Kakashi earlier than in canon.

Tayuya is not going to be part of Yue's harem. Even a hanyō lesbian needs rest. She was originally going to be, but I decided to shine the light on a different canon character who was discarded like a used rag. If you read my responses last chapter, I think it was last chapter, I said that in Necessary Darkness, Naruto gets the harem (with Tayuya in it!) while it is strictly YueIno on the other end. Then again, I might hook the two up. Never thought of NaruSakuTayu. Hmm. I'll think about it. I honestly believe he has more than enough women abusing him in canon. Also, Necessary Darkness will have NaruSakuTayuKonan in it. Let's just say that Naruto comes to understand the hearts of women. Jiraiya would be so proud.

Yes, Yue is still taking questions. She won't be available after chapter 18 though. I'm so evil!

**farfikuger:** Interesting name, and that is one and a half votes for Tayuya living to curse another guy into impotency.

**Tehedward:** That's twice people have said that Yue is mary sue-ish, but at least you didn't quit reading because Yue isn't important enough to be able to look at Naruto, then look at the monument and put two and two together.

I already said that the changes in Part I would be minimal to a point. There are extra parts thrown in for Yue, since she needs to be somewhere, and some events are altered by her presence. Truth be told, even at her weakest, Yue outstripped Team 7's genin, so she needed to be background or she would ruin the story.

Now, you said much didn't change, but they did. Zabuza's sword isn't in Wave right now, Yue has it with her. This alters Part II since Suigetsu will have to retrieve it from her, which means that Team Hebi runs into Yue later so he can do so, which he will. Most of what I am doing now ties into later events, such as Yue fighting Orochimaru during the exams. And for the most part, Yue is filling in plot holes and such. After all, what ever happened to the teammates of the ninja Sasuke performed an amateur spinal tap on back in the forest of death?

In terms of Part I, yeah, this story follows canon for the most part. In Part II, things will be different, such as ten Akatsuki members and Sasuke never losing his curse seal or snake powers. And I didn't switch up the fights because I couldn't do much without messing up canon. Temari's interest in Shikamaru comes from their fight, Sasuke had to fight Gaara because Naruto had to fight Neji. Yue couldn't fight against Dosu because her hearing is too sensitive to stand up to more than one of his sound strikes and Dosu happened to be dead. See, inflexible. I could have tossed Sasuke into the fire, but I wanted Sakura to see how weak he was, and it worked because she has broken free of the fan girl craze, somewhat.

Now I agree that Yue is a Mary Sue, but only physically. You also have to remember that she is surrounded by genin when she is two ranks above them in terms of power and experience, so she will be stronger than them. People obsess over the physical aspects of OCs and never give them the flaws I do. All my OCs have some emotional or mental flaws, mostly low self-esteem. As Naruto proved in the Land of Iron, you can become stronger, faster and learn powerful jutsu, but you can't easily get rid of an inferiority complex and idiocy. That is where I tinker with my OCs, in the hard-impossible to fix areas. Strong body, weak mind and/or spirit.

I don't see your review as a flame, just a review of someone who has read a lot of fics where people focus on the strength of the original characters rather than their emotions and past. Most OC are shallow, not much background at all. I'm not saying that they're bad or anything, just that they aren't fleshed out that much.

If you want to hear something scary, sometimes it feels like Yue IS a canon character to me. I think I made her too well or something... I'm still trying to figure out if that is a good thing or not. I guess that's what happens when you build about 30% of an OC from canon characters.

**thedarkpokemaster:** Actually, I just couldn't understand your reviews. I think you should slow down, take a moment to read them over and then post. The site isn't going anywhere and I post every week or two, depending on how engrossed I am with writing whatever chapter of this fic I am on at the time. At the writing of this review, I'm working on chapter 21, which is when Sasuke ditches Konoha.

**Auctor:** Ah! Now I know where to put her later. Hehehehe (Jiraiya and Kakashi join in with lecherous giggles) Back off perverts! I didn't mean that way...though I can see Anko tying Tayuya up and... (stops imagining TayuAnko to stop the nosebleed)

...SPURT!

(I failed)

Yue and Yugito do meet, but it doesn't end well. You'll see why later. That's two and a half Tayuya lives votes. So far, nobody opposes.

**Darkbringer:** I am currently going by the belief that most of my readers are going to school or working, so I don't honestly expect a review every chapter. Then again, posting a chapter and getting no reviews at all would be depressing.

I actually had the most trouble planning the reactions. I originally had things like Choji choking or Shikamaru passing out, but I figured that I did well enough with the ones I went with.

**!OMAKE!**

**Yue still answers!**

Yue: Got another one!

9-tailed reapers asks: What is your finisher?

Yue: I don't have one yet. I guess NyaNya Hidama or Raitou. Kick to the balls sounds good too, but girls don't have balls...Neither does Sasuke. (snickers)

9-tailed reaper asks: *does Jiraiya's perverted hand movements* favourite position?

Yue: (Blushes) Uh-um-ah... (Blushes harder) K-K-kissing!

Excele, sweat dropping: I don't think he meant that... And you've never kissed anyone before.

Yue, now at Hinata level blushing: S-S-S-SHUT UP! (throws sandal) NEITHER HAVE YOU, BAKA!

**~~Future events hint~~**

I have planned a third level to the curse seal, since Sasuke doesn't lose it in this fic, nor does he lose his serpent powers. Let's face it, without the curse seal and his serpent powers, Sasuke doesn't truly stand a chance against Naruto. He would have lost in the Valley of the End and been dragged back to Konoha.

In terms of ability, the seal is almost the same as Jūgo's. Of course, the form I have planned for Sasuke's level 3 curse seal fits him.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Search for the Sucker

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

A few days after the Sandaime's funeral, Jiraiya was busy peeking on some women when two old coots walked in on him.

"Please control yourself Jiraiya," the man, Homura, stated, "you are an adult, it is time to stop such things."

"Stop spoiling my fun," Jiraiya shot back, then turned to see who it was, "Homura? Koharu? Why are you two here?"

"You know why we are here," Homura said while shaking his head.

Jiraiya crossed his arms. "Didn't the peace talks with Suna go well? What's with that face?"

"The Leaf is the problem," Homura said sternly, "we are weakened from the combined Suna/Oto attack. Now is the time to prepare for the worst."

Koharu stepped forward, taking over. "Any village can attack us at this time. We are in the process of creating a military council in case that happens, but we need a leader first, a Hokage." She paused. "Orochimaru isn't the only problem in this world. We came to a decision yesterday. Jiraiya, you-"

"Not happening!" Jiraiya said while crossing his arms, "we both know I'm not cut out to lead. I can't even control myself, let alone others." He thought of a certain brat and two flat-as-boards kunoichi.

Homura pressed on. "It is the decision of the council. You are also one of the three ninja that man gave the title of 'Sannin' to. Nobody else can take over the position."

"There are three Sannin," Jiraiya reminded them, "the person most suited to be Hokage among us was always Tsunade."

"She is qualified, but we don't know where she is or where to start," Koharu said uncertainly.

"I'll go find her," Jiraiya said, "I just gotta hit every casino I can find." Homura was about to say something, but Jiraiya cut him off. "Trust me, things will be better with her in charge."

"Then three ANBU will-" Homura started.

"Not happening!" Jiraiya said once again, "don't worry, I'm not running again. But I do want one particular guy to come with with me." He walked away, "I'll go see if he's willing to go."

Homura and Koharu stared after him. "Hopefully it is Asuma or Kakashi that he takes along," the old man stated.

Koharu nodded. "They are the only ones in this village worth a Sannin's time, other than our last Uchiha."

Homura sighed. "That Urami... What was he thinking, mentioning that demon cat's name when we were talking about a successor? Then suggesting she be promoted to ANBU after we refused to listen to his nonsense."

"His clan is dying out and their power is thinned to almost nothing. He is just trying to strengthen the clan's name by sending one affiliated with him up the ranks, even if it is a filthy half blood mongrel," Koharu spat out, "as if a demon could lead our village. We would be ruined in no time at all." Homura nodded in agreement and they went to inform the military council of Jiraiya's plan.

_[Ramen Ichiraku]_

Naruto, Sakura and Yue were eating some ramen, having just finished with another lesson with the cat hanyō. Kakashi had promised to train Naruto after his mission.

Jiraiya popped in. "Found ya. Hard to believe it's so hard finding that blond head of yours."

"Ero-sennin?" Naruto said around his noodles.

A little while later, the four were walking the streets of Konoha. Jiraiya had tried to shoo Yue and Sakura away, but the stubborn cat girl had growled at him repeatedly til she threatened to tell the hot springs to replace their fences with new, taller ones that would guard the bathers from peeping.

"Why do I have to go with you? I need to learn the chidori and some other jutsu too," Naruto muttered angrily, "Kakashi-sensei promised he was going to train me now. I don't have time for you and your perverted pickup sessions."

"I think the chidori doesn't suit you at all," Jiraiya said while lowering himself to Naruto's level, "plus, the girl is a bombshell."

Naruto stopped. "I'm not going! That's final!"

"Too bad, I was going to teach you an even stronger jutsu. Guess I'll take Sasuke then," Jiraiya said, knowing what he was doing. He would never, EVER teach that spoiled brat anything, even if he was forced at kunai point.

"I'm going!" Naruto shouted, "I'm going to get my stuff!" He rushed away so quickly that nobody could say anything to him.

"It worked," Jiraiya said with a smug grin, then noticed Yue sending a pair of cats away with a scroll tied to each of their collars. "What was that about?"

Yue snickered. "I just sent word to Sakura's parents and Kakashi that we were going with you."

"Nooooo!" Jiraiya wailed in anguish. There went all his plans of general drunkenness and perversion!

Forty minutes later, Naruto returned to a crying Jiraiya and two of his three teammates waiting at the gate.

"Let's go!" Naruto cheered, then struggled to drag a huge bag out of the village.

"Naruto..." Yue said while sweat dropping, "no need to bring half your apartment with you."

"Do I want to know why he could drag it here, but no further?" Sakura asked herself.

_[Three day later, a small village]_

"Ne Ne! When are you going to teach me that jutsu Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked. This was a training trip and only Yue had been telling him stuff and helping him fix up his taijutsu.

Jiraiya took offence at the nickname and went into his introductory bit. The three genin walked away, ignoring him.

A little while later, Naruto perked up again. "Hey! I have a question Ero-sennin!"

"The name is Jiraiya!" said pervert snapped.

"I have potential, don't I? That's why you chose me!" Naruto shouted, completely ignoring Jiraiya's protest.

"Not really, you just resemble the Yondaime, my apprentice," Jiraiya said.

_[Konoha]_

Sasuke was training. He remember Naruto's summon, that massive combo, Yue taking on chūnin and jōnin as if they were mere genin. He knew that Naruto was powerful, as was Yue. He hated himself. He had been afraid of them both when they encountered odds that were heavily stacked against them. The sheer power radiating off them at those times was immense enough to bring about fear. Even with the chidori, he still quaked in their shadows. At this rate, one of them would kill Itachi, not him.

He ran towards the hospital, intent on getting Kakashi to assist him in learning a new jutsu or helping him boost his reserves. Using chidori twice each day was a sign of his weakness.

He walked into the room to find Kakashi on the bed with Guy, Kurenai and Asuma watching over him.

"What happened to Kakashi?" Sasuke asked, "and why are you all here."

"Can't we visit a fellow jōnin who overdid it with trai-" Guy started.

A man rushed in. "Is it true that Itachi returned and is targeting Naruto!"

Sasuke didn't pay attention to the rest that was said, just ran out of the room, the hospital. He had to find Naruto.

_'Why did he come back now! And for Naruto of all people! I have to find him before he kills Naruto!'_ Sasuke thought in a panic as he tore through Konoha's streets with his top speed. He knew that Yue often checked in with Sakura's mother before getting Naruto and taking them off to train, maybe she knew more.

He knocked quickly on the door and it was opened by the woman. He noted that she had brown hair and light green eyes. He shuddered internally, imagining that Sakura's father was the source of that atrocious pink hair. "Is Sakura in?" he asked.

"Oh, you must be Sasuke," the woman said, "sorry, but you missed her a few days ago."

"Missed her?" Sasuke asked, confused.

"Sakura-chan, Yue-chan and Naruto-kun left on a little training trip with Jiraiya-sama of the Sannin," the woman squealed slightly, "my daughter is being trained by a Sannin and one of Konoha's most well known jōnin, I'm proud of her!"

"How does this Jiraiya guy look?" Sasuke was pressed for time and he needed a description.

"He is an old, attractive man with long, white hair," the woman said dreamily. If only her husband could be half that dashing at fifty.

"Got it!" Sasuke said, then took off.

The woman frowned a bit. "What does my daughter see in him? He's so rude, calling Jiraiya-sama by just his name. He didn't even say hello or goodbye, just ran off after he got what he wanted." She closed the door, deciding to talk with her daughter later. Naruto-kun was much kinder.

_[Hotel in a nearby town]_

"This is the place, say hello to our temporary home," Jiraiya said. Yue scowled, knowing that a bar was across the street. If Jiraiya caused any trouble at all, he would never be allowed into the place again.

A very beautiful woman walked into view, making Naruto, Jiraiya and Yue gape. She winked in their direction. "Naruto! Take our things up to the room!" Jiraiya ordered, "work on chakra control with the brat!" He turned, only to see the brat (Yue) walking away with the woman. "No! I saw her first! She's mine!" he shouted.

Sakura and Naruto went up to the rooms. The boys had their own room and the girls were next door. Naruto went in and grumbled to himself, knowing Yue was acting childish to get the woman's attention while Jiraiya tried to hit on her. To make matters worse, Sakura was in the next room and he was forbidden to go there.

Downstairs, Sasuke burst into the hotel and ran to the desk. "A white haired man, a girl wearing red, a little girl and a stupid looking blond boy my age should have checked in not too long ago."

The clerk thought for a few moments, then answered with, "I signed them in about ten minutes ago."

"Which room?" Sasuke asked.

The man pointed to where he had to go and he ran, hoping he wasn't too late. He reached the door, and opened it. Inside, he found a boy and an old man, just not the ones he was looking for. The door across the hall opened to reveal a teenaged girl in a red shirt with her little sister. "Dammit!" Sasuke grunted.

Naruto opened the door to a man that resembled Sasuke, but wasn't him. He saw the sharingan, knowing that he had to be an Uchiha.

"This brat really the Kyūbi?" a shark-like man asked as he practically forced his way through the doorway. Naruto panicked. Not many people were supposed to know about the Kyūbi being in him.

"Now Naruto-kun, come with me," the Uchiha lightly commanded. Naruto found himself obeying.

The shark man grabbed the hilt of his sword. "He doesn't need his legs, so let's cut them off to be safe."

The Uchiha didn't respond or even move. "Long time, no see. Sasuke."

Sasuke, who was panting slightly, scowled as his sharingan bore holes into the older man. "Uchiha Itachi."

"Hoho. Two sharingan in one week," the shark man said, "this one has it in both eyes."

"I'll kill you!" Sasuke shouted.

"You know this guy? Sounds like he knows you," Shark man asked while chuckling slightly.

"He was my little brother," Itachi stated.

"Didn't you kill all the Uchiha?" Shark man looked very interested.

"I've lived for this moment, the moment I kill you. I will end this today!" Sasuke shouted as an overpowered chidori tore pieces of skin off his hand. He rushed forward, his chidori destroying everything that came near it.

Itachi deflected it at the last second by grabbing Sasuke's arm, right behind the deadly cutting blade. Sasuke stopped his momentum, his hand was pointing at Naruto's heart. _'Damn you Itachi!'_

Naruto began summoning up the chakra of the fox, knowing that he needed to summon something to help Sasuke.

"You're an eyesore," Itachi said as he broke Sasuke's wrist.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted as he felt the fox's chakra flow into his system.

"Can't have you doing that!" Shark man shouted as he pulled his wrapped up sword and swung down at nothing.

The large sword met another, but Naruto suddenly felt his chakra vanish.

"Oh! I never thought I would see this one again," Shark man said, "it's been a while since Samehada met up with Kubikirihōchō. Of course, it was held by Zabuza at the time."

"Samehada? You must be Hoshigaki Kisame," Yue growled as she struggled to hold up her own sword and push back against the other one. Her arms were already starting to feel numb from the triple weights pushing at them. Her chakra had also been bitten into when that sword moved. Without chakra reinforcement, the sword was impossible to wield.

Kisame jumped back, then rushed forward as he swung at Naruto again. "With your chakra eaten, I have nothing to worry about. Just a leg, that will keep you from running!"

A toad with armor blocked the sword. "I prefer to get the girl, though it is nice when the girl gets me. My special skill as a Super Pervert is getting girls to love me, or at least admit to it," Jiraiya said from behind Naruto. He then introduced himself, only to be ignored by everyone.

"With a single wink, you and Yue were after her like dogs after fresh meat! Ero-Sennin and Ero-Neko! Those are your new names!" Naruto shouted.

"Stop saying that!" Jiraiya shouted.

"I never thought that such a simple trick would keep one of those three legendary ninja busy for so long," Kisame said.

Itachi noted the woman over Jiraiya's shoulder. "You released her from my genjutsu. Good work."

"Using Sharingan to control a woman, you guys really are after Naruto if you need to keep me busy like that. Good thing I can tell when a woman really has a thing for me," Jiraiya stated as he put the woman down. He would never admit that the wedding ring had tipped him off, nor would he admit that it was Yue who had pointed it out to him. That explained why the gaki had insisted on hanging off the woman's left arm.

Itachi's eyes narrowed. "So you are the one who told Kakashi about us. 'Capture Naruto.' That is the sole order we have as Akatsuki."

"You won't even come close to getting Naruto," Jiraiya vowed.

"Why do you say that?" Itachi asked.

"You will die here by my hands," Jiraiya said.

"That...is my target," Sasuke panted as he stood up.

"Worthless," Itachi said without even looking at Sasuke, "you mean absolutely nothing to me now. Get out of my sight." Sasuke didn't listen, so Itachi kicked him into a wall.

"You!" Naruto shouted as he made to rush forward.

"Don't! He's mine!" Sasuke shouted as he got up. Before he could start moving forward, Itachi appeared before him and struck Sasuke in the stomach. He then proceeded to beat Sasuke to render him unable to move. When he was finished, Itachi picked Sasuke up and held him against the wall by his neck, then Sasuke started screaming after looking into his brother's eyes.

"Stop using it so much," Kisame warned.

"Stop it!" Naruto shouted as he ran past Kisame, going for Itachi and Sasuke. Kisame made to go after him.

Without warning, the walls became fleshy. The feel of chakra told them that it was a jutsu. "You two will become food for the toads," Jiraiya stated.

"So weak. You don't hate enough yet," Itachi told Sasuke, "hate more and more. Then you may have the power to fight me."

"What is this?" Naruto shouted.

"It's a jutsu," Yue explained, "a really high level one too."

"Kisame, we're leaving!" Itachi stated. Kisame freed his sword and followed.

"Itachi!" Yue shouted before she chased after them, resealing her large blade to move quicker.

"Nobody runs from me when inside this jutsu!" Jiraiya manipulated the jutsu with a jolt of chakra. Naruto and Jiraiya gave chase, only to find a hole in the wall with black flames burning around the edges.

Yue jumped back up from the ground, carefully skirting the flames. "Avoid the fire, that stuff won't go out until its consumed everything it touches," she warned.

Jiraiya pulled out a scroll and sealed some of the flame for further study later.

"Ah! Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, remembering his friend. Jiraiya cancelled the jutsu, returning the area to normal. They ran back to the boy.

When they got back to Sasuke, a kunai slammed into the far wall, catching Jiraiya's attention. "Wha?"

"**Dynamic Entry!"** Guy shouted as he flew at Jiraiya from the other side, foot aimed for the pervert's head.

"Guy?" Jiraiya asked.

WHAM!

Five minutes later, Guy apologized, saying his forehead protector needed more polishing so he could see clearly next time. Jiraiya figured he had done it on purpose. Yue admitted she would have done it for the heck of it, then went to check on Sakura.

"Sasuke needs to go to the hospital," Jiraiya stated, "he most likely has a few broken bones. Itachi also did something with his sharingan that rendered Sasuke unconscious."

"Will Sasuke be alright?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya thought for a moment. "He took a blow of the mental sort, so I can't really say."

"Ero-sennin. Let's go after them!" Naruto shouted.

"And you will die. Itachi is far stronger than anyone you've encountered before," Yue said as she carried Sakura out of the room, "Sakura's fine, just overdosed on KI."

"Running away is for cowards!" Naruto shouted, "I don't want the kind of life where I hide all the time!"

Yue pinned Naruto to the wall with her right hand, actually lifting him off the ground. Her left hand held before his heart, a very familiar jutsu filling the air with noise.

"Ch-chidori!" Naruto gasped.

"You're weak!" Yue snapped as she glared into his eyes with her slightly slitted ones, then she threw Naruto to the side, "as you are now, you might as well cut your tendons and save them the trouble." The lightning faded from her hand, revealing scratches and burns.

_'Hmm. She copied the chidori,'_ Jiraiya thought.

"I understand your feelings, Naruto-kun, but we must focus on getting Sasuke to a hospital," Guy cut in, "Kakashi is also caught up in the same jutsu."

Yue looked down at the ground. She quickly put her fingertips to her temples, as if checking something, then went back to reviving Sakura.

"Kakashi-sensei too!" Naruto shouted.

"Even though nothing can be done for the mental damage he took, we should have medics around in case anything happens to his body," Guy suggested.

Jiraiya looked towards the burned out window. "Now, more than ever, we have to find her."

"Her? You mean her, right?" Guy asked. Jiraiya nodded.

Outside, Jiraiya and Naruto promised to bring Tsunade back so she could heal Kakashi, Sasuke and Lee. Before departing, Guy handed Naruto a green jumpsuit. He offered one for Yue as well, but she threatened to burn it. Guy left.

"You...aren't going wear that, are you?" Jiraiya asked.

"It suits me," Naruto said.

"If you wear that thing, I'm abandoning you somewhere and never looking back," Jiraiya said, "that thing is a hideous mistake that should have never happened." He started walking, making everyone run to catch up at first. Naruto stowed the jumpsuit in his backpack.

A little while later, Yue was teaching Sakura about something combat related and the two lagged behind.

Naruto moved a bit closer to Jiraiya. "Why are those guys after me?"

"You heard them. It isn't you that they want, they want what's sealed inside you," Jiraiya explained.

Naruto gripped his stomach. "This is the reason the village hates me, but what is it?"

"A demon that has brought nothing but destruction where it went," Jiraiya said, "as to why they want it, I can't even begin to guess. Perhaps they think they can control it somehow after unsealing it." He sighed. "That's what you will have to deal with. I'll prot-"

"I'm going to get stronger. Strong enough that I don't have to hide from them," Naruto stated. "C'mon! Let's go find Tsunade!" He then stopped, seeming to realize something. "Wait, Tsunade is the absolute beauty you said we had to find, right?"

"Yeah," Jiraiya said with a smile, thinking of that woman. "Not even a month on the road with me and you're already using your brain more."

Naruto started sweating. "You, her and that snake-teme are called the Sannin, right?" Jiraiya nodded. "How old is she?" Naruto asked.

"Same as me," Jiraiya stated.

"So she's an ugly old hag," Naruto grumbled.

"That's not true at all!" Yue shouted, startling everyone, "Senju-sama is a beautiful woman who the years have ignored! She is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen!"'

"You've seen her before?" Sakura asked, finally having caught up.

Yue removed her forehead protector from her neck, revealing an almost silver scar across her neck, the kind of scar that would be left behind from a fatally slit throat. "Senju-sama healed this after I screwed up." She replaced the forehead protector. "Without her, I would be dead now."

"While I agree that she's the most beautiful woman I know of, she has her faults too," Jiraiya said.

"Like what?" Naruto asked.

"She's a gambler that is well known in almost every casino in the Elemental Nations," Jiraiya said after thinking a bit.

"So she's so skilled that she is notorious?" Sakura asked.

"No, she sucks so much at gambling that people actually call her the Legendary Sucker," Jiraiya stated. "Anyways, I figure that time really beat up on her, so she'll be using a long term henge to appear around 20 or so. She may change it around because of running from her debts, but it is mostly based off of how she looked at the time, so I should know."

"You sound like a stalker," Sakura muttered.

Not for the first time, Yue wished that she didn't score negatives when it came to genjutsu. Sadly, she had temporarily forgotten that henge was ninjutsu, not genjutsu. She sighed. "Not the best example of an adult, but her healing skills are unsurpassed."

"Anyways, we will be travelling on foot. I figure that my contacts should be able to dig something up on her by the time we finish up," Jiraiya said.

"Finish what?" Naruto asked.

"Your training," Jiraiya stated, "I'm going to train you myself."

"Can I learn something too?" Yue chimed while holding her hand up and smiling like a cat.

Jiraiya looked at her. "Did you learn the chidori, or steal it?"

Yue looked down, ears drooping. "Never mind then. I'll continue refining the chidori and working on my new jutsu."

_'Refining? You don't have to do that when you steal a jutsu. Maybe I was wrong to say call her a jutsu thief,'_ Jiraiya thought. He looked back and noticed that Naruto had pulled out that jumpsuit again. "Naruto, destroy that thing. I wouldn't wish that thing onto my worst enemies. Besides, the outfit you are wearing is good enough."

Naruto looked down. He was still wearing the outfit Yue had helped him get. He had to admit that it was cool, but it didn't have nearly enough orange for his tastes. The four continued on, Yue in the rear while repeatedly activating a weak chidori to test her limits and to perfect it.

_[A day later]_

"Training! Training! Training!" Naruto chanted, "let's start already!"

"Calm down," Jiraiya hissed, annoyed with the constant noise, "there isn't any point in starting until we know where Tsunade is."

"Sounds like a Kakashi excuse," Yue muttered.

"You say something?" Jiraiya shot back.

"Just that you're a perverted slacker, just like Kakashi was," Yue shot back, still angry about being called a jutsu thief.

Jiraiya sighed. He had tried to apologize, but the girl was stubborn and made it a point to vanish whenever he came near her. It really was like dealing with another Tsunade. "We will gather information about Tsunade in this town," Jiraiya said as the four came to what appeared to be an edge to a valley, a valley with a city within it.

Once in the town proper, Naruto looked all over the place in wonder of the festivities. All his time in Konoha, he had been chased out of the festivals, so this was a first. Yue seemed scared, but still interested. She had flipped her hood up and hidden her tail before they entered the town.

"Let's take a little break before we start training," Jiraiya said, "once the festival is over, we start."

"Yeah!" Naruto cheered as he dug into his backpack. He finally found his almost bursting frog wallet, Gama-chan.

"Whoa! That's a well filled wallet," Jiraiya exclaimed.

"Everyone needs savings, so I've been saving a little bit each time I got mission pay," Naruto happily explained, "I'm going to spend a little bit on the festival!"

Naruto went to rush off, but Gama-chan suddenly vanished. Naruto looked around, noticing that Jiraiya had it. "Naruto, there are three things a ninja must be wary of," the old perv warned.

"Dark bottlenecks, unknown territory and poison?" Yue asked.

Jiraiya shook his head. "Alcohol, women and money are danger to a ninja."

Yue, Naruto and Sakura all stared at him blandly. _'Then why the hell are you, a man who searches for those things, still alive?'_ they all thought in concert.

Jiraiya opened the frog wallet and took out a fair amount of ryo. "Here, this should be enough to have some fun with," the pervert said as he pocketed the wallet. "Naruto, make sure to drop our stuff off at the hotel room," he looked over at Sakura and Yue, "the washboards can do whatever they want."

"What was that!" Yue shouted as she stomped forward, cracking the pavement, a fist raised threateningly. Her chakra flared at an incredible rate.

Then stopped without warning.

Jiraiya was now more curious about Yue, completely forgetting that she was pissed off. He stepped into range. Chakra molding didn't suddenly end like that, it slowed before hitting the shinobi's limit.

"NYAA!" Yue shouted as she swung her sharp claws down on Jiraiya's face, leaving shallow claw marks going down his face.

Jiraiya fell over and rolled around, holding his face as he bellowed in pain. "I was just wondering what went wrong with you!" he wailed, "and you put chakra into that, didn't you!"

Yue huffed and turned away. Everyone noticed the glowing mark on the back of her clothes. "Yue, what's that?" Sakura asked.

"What's what?" Yue asked as she turned to try and see what they were talking about. She spun in circles for a few moments, trying to see what they saw. She looked more like a dog than a cat right now.

"That mark on your clothes," Naruto explained as he poked at the coat during one of Yue's breaks, then freaked when the clothes moved and the mark didn't.

"That's a seal," Jiraiya calmly stated, having revived himself, "a fairly powerful one too." Yue hissed and spun around to confront Jiraiya, only to see nothing. "I can remove it, if you want," Jiraiya offered from the side. Yue hissed again. "That seal is probably restricting your chakra and your yōki. Removing it may make you stronger than you have ever imagined," Jiraiya explained.

Yue stopped hissing. She frowned at the man. "Fine, but not out in the open like this. I won't be stripped in public by a pervert." She turned and started walking towards another district. The others followed.

Ten minutes later, they were in the quiet red light district. Since it was daytime and all the people were at the festival, the area was dead. Yue slipped into an alleyway and exposed the still glowing seal. "Do anything perverted and you will have to carry your hands in your mouth," the girl warned.

Jiraiya frowned at her. "If you were some busty, sexy beauty, then I couldn't control myself or my hands. You are none of that, so don't worry." He examined the seal for a few moments, then flashed through a few hand seals. He touched his fingertips to six areas around the edge of the seal, making the outer structure fade away. The old man then drew a circle with one hand and a triangle with the other on the seal, causing more of it to fade away. Now sweating a bit at dispelling such a complicated seal, Jiraiya performed four hand seals and placed his right hand in the dead center of the seal while his left hand went to Yue's lower back, finally causing the remains of the seal to vanish.

Yue's chakra spiked and became visible, burning around her like a black and silver fire. Without warning, it spiked higher, slowly tapering off.

_'Unbelievable. I've never encountered a seal with so much protection. Minato, why did you make a seal strong enough to restrict her like that? This girl has a lot of chakra and yōki, far more than a hanyō should have,'_ Jiraiya thought to himself, _'it makes no sense. Could this girl possess a dangerous power? Or was it like with Naruto, to protect her from something?'_

Yue's chakra stabilized and she drew it back into her body. "Thanks," the girl mumbled out while looking away. Jiraiya went to apologize about the jutsu thief comment, but the girl walked to the alley's exit. "Sakura, I think we should go to the hotel and wash up. I don't know if you can smell it or not, but we smell like Ero-sennin over there," Yue said with a smirk. Sakura quickly ran to catch up, giggling the whole way.

Jiraiya was fuming. "Don't call me that! The name is Jiraiya!" he shouted. He looked to Naruto, only noticing just then that Naruto was gone. He grumbled to himself as he walked out of the red light district. He caught a familiar scent and ran off with a giggle.

Had Jiraiya not been planning his romp with Naruto's money, he would have recognized the hard points of the seal he had removed from Yue's back, which would have made him know what he had just unsealed.

_[Hotel]_

Naruto had tossed most of the heavy stuff into the room, only carrying some light stuff. He encountered Yue and Sakura coming out of their room. Sakura's hair was wet from a shower.

"S-Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelped. Those beads of water in her hair made it seem like stars had been caught in those pink locks.

"What is it?" the object of Naruto's affection asked. Naruto swore her eyes were sparkling in a different way than normal.

"W-would you like to...with me...the festival?" he asked, completely jumbling what he was going to say.

Yue giggled. "I guess I should go around on my own then. I may be an idiot, but I can tell when I'm a third wheel."

"We're not like that!" Sakura shouted, showing very little sign of embarrassment.

Yue frowned. "There is no reason to get like that. I wasn't saying that you two were going on a date. Fact is, your friendship with Naruto is kind of weak. Going around with him during the festival would be a good way for you two to learn about each other and become better friends and teammates." Yue sighed. "Just hang out with him for a while, he might surprise you." Yue left the two alone, heading off towards the slums.

Sakura looked over to Naruto, then quickly looked away. "A-alright, let's go around for a bit."

The two had a blast. Unlike how she thought Naruto was, he was anything but perverted while they were going around. Sakura found it almost scary that she was enjoying her time with Naruto. She laughed when he tripped, wearing a very ANBU-like mask. They then found Jiraiya's bank book. Neither had ever seen so many digits.

The times were good before a perverted giggle, then a crash rolled over them.

"You perverted, thieving lecher!"

Naruto and Sakura sweat dropped. That was Yue's voice. They quickly ran into a bar to find Yue glaring at Jiraiya, who was drunk and had his arms slung over the shoulder's of two attractive women. The bartender went to ask them to leave, then noticed their forehead protectors.

"Awww! She's so tiny and cute!" the black haired woman cooed as she pat Yue on the head, receiving purrs from the half demon as the sensation of the gentle touch near her hidden ears ran down her spine. Yue crumpled under the delicious assault and crawled halfway up onto the woman's lap, rubbing her head against the woman's stomach, wanting to be pet more and accidentally pushing her hood down to expose her ears. The woman happily obliged. Yue was in kitten heaven. If only it was Ino petting her...

The other one, a redhead, noticed Naruto. "He's pretty cute too," she said as she stepped away from Jiraiya and gently hugged Naruto to her chest. "It's like I got a cute little brother!" She giggled as Naruto blushed at what his head was resting on.

Sakura was pissed off and blushing as she watched the woman hug Naruto and coo over him. If looks could kill, Orochimaru would roll over dead from the glare and he was nowhere near Naruto.

Jiraiya was now completely sober and angry. The two hottest girls in the bar were now all over the brat and the nekomimi washboard. Worst part was that the two had taken them effortlessly. It took Jiraiya paying for drinks to get them interested in him.

Naruto managed to break the woman's hold and stumbled back, bumping into a man. A splash was heard.

"Da fuck is your problem!" the man shouted, "this is a designer jacket! You got the ryo to pay for it!" His partner stepped up, cracking his knuckles. The women went away, not wanting to get involved.

"Naruto, let me show you what I'm going to be teaching you," Jiraiya said. He moved forward, a ball of some sort forming over his hand. He thrust his hand forward, sticking that ball into the thug's stomach. A whirlwind kicked up and the two men were thrown through a window and into a stand outside. A water balloon flew at Jiraiya. He caught it, the thugs' wallets in his right hand.

"Down goes the two guys wearing cheap hotel drapes," Yue snickered, "and how did you get those wallets? Suspicious old man..."

Jiraiya ignored her and used the money in the confiscated wallets to pay for all the damage he had caused. Naruto grabbed Gama-chan and Sakura's hand as they all left before someone else tried something with them. He threw the balloon he had caught into Naruto's hands. "Come Naruto, its time to train."

"Yeah!" Naruto cheered.

Yue turned away and started to walk away. "Eh? Yue! Where are you going?" Naruto shouted after he noticed her leaving.

"I'm sure that he doesn't want a jutsu thief around," Yue said accusingly as she pointed back at Jiraiya. "Sakura, you can do what you want for a while. I can't teach you about genjutsu since I don't understand it at all and I taught you as much as I can for now. Anymore would probably hurt you," Yue called back.

Sakura looked back and forth, then went after Yue. "Sorry Naruto, Jiraiya-sama. Someone needs to make sure she doesn't overdo it. She is an idiot after all," Sakura explained, then followed the petite girl.

Jiraiya sighed. He wanted to admit that he was wrong about her, but that Tsunade level stubbornness was as easy to get rid of Jiraiya's perverseness, and removing that would destroy all existence. He would take his status as a Super Pervert to the grave. "Can't do anything about her right now, but I can teach you that jutsu. Let's go to the forest for now," Jiraiya said. Naruto nodded and followed the pervert away.

**A/N~**

I feel this is a good place to stop for this chapter. I will split between Naruto's training and snippets of Yue's familiarization with her unsealed powers. Don't worry, she doesn't figure them out just yet.

Now this may seem way too early to even think of, but I may have come up with a sequel to Konoha's Two Demons. It would be set when Naruto was 25 years old. He won't be Hokage, yet, but that wouldn't put a damper on him at all. I got a rough idea of what will start it off and a new enemy, but that's it. I'll have lots of time to think up the rest. First things first, a title... I'll update on this idea later.

As for updates, my profile was updated a while ago with some of my future projects. I want to know what people think of them, particularly my next fic, The Greatest. It contains a bloodline OC that becomes Naruto's childhood friend, then girlfriend. And yes, it is a NaruOCSakuIno.

I have a new section that will follow all the other sections. I ask YOU, the reviewers, questions that may pop up. Don't worry, its about Naruto, particularly the anime only content, since I can't download or watch it right now.

**-Jutsu Index-**

Introducing jutsu that exist in canon, but were never named!

**Midare Sukyan [Disturbance Scan]:** E rank medical ninjutsu. A simple jutsu where one detects if the flow of chakra within a person's brain has been forcibly altered, as is the case with powerful genjutsu like Tsukuyomi.

Current users: Senju Tsunade, Shizune, Kazeneko Yue, Mitarashi Anko

**Karada Sukyan** [Body Scan]: E rank medical ninjutsu. Like Midare Sukyan, this jutsu is used to determine the health of the patient. Unlike the aforementioned jutsu, this jutsu allows the body itself to be scanned.

Beginners can scan poisons and broken bones. Amateurs can scan the depth of wounds in addition to what a beginner can detect. Intermediate users can scan the previously mentioned things as well as muscle and organ damage. Mastery of this jutsu allows the user to scan all the above as well as disease and the interior of the organs and skeletal structure.

Current Users: Senju Tsunade (master), Shizune (intermediate), Mitarashi Anko (amateur), Kazeneko Yue (beginner)

**Character themes=** (as I see it or have decided)

Singles-

Naruto: (I may need assistance here)  
>Sakura: (definitely need assistance here)<br>Sasuke: Down with the sickness – Disturbed  
>Yue [Part I] (also Yue = Ino): Long Dream – Makiko Noda<br>Yue [Part II]: Dance with the Devil – Breaking Benjamin

Pairs (not always lovers) and groups-

Sasuke - Naruto & Yue: Thing I hate – Stabbing Westward  
>Yue - Sasuke: There's no sympathy for the dead – Escape the fate<br>Yue - Ino [Part I]: Addicted – Eric Solomon  
>Naruto = Sakura [Part II]: Bring me to life – Evanescence<br>Curse Seal III Sasuke = ? Yue: When Darkness Falls – Killswitch Engage  
>Shinobi Alliance: Fight as One – Bad City<p>

Notes-

Character1 = Character2: means feelings/relationship goes both ways. Mutual feelings

Character1 - Chraracter2: Means the feelings/relationship is one-sided. Only Character1 sees things this way.

**!OMAKE!**

**How did that happen!**

"Heh heh. Lost em!" Yue quietly cheered. It had taken a bit of work, but those morons behind her lost the trail. "Now to go and help Naruto out."

The cat girl quickly made her way over to where Naruto and that Gaara kid fell after that toad and sand thing disappeared. She parted the bushes slightly and looked at what was going on.

"Huh? Aren't those the ninja I left behind? How did they get here first?" Yue asked herself.

**What just happened?**

"Damn, I should have taken them out," Yue grumbled to herself as she took stock of her scrolls. Hmm, maybe it was time to try out Kubikirihōchō out. She hadn't bothered to see if she had the strength to lift it yet.

"Heh heh heh. All I got to do is swing it once or twice and they're all down for the count, or scared out of their minds," Yue told herself as she unfurled the scroll the sealed the great sword. She charged the scroll with chakra and...

The sword came out and went spinning end over end into the clearing.

"Wut?"

Did that just happen? She watched the sword slam into the ground, startling the enemy ninja. "Uh, might as well use it!" Yue told herself, then ran out into the clearing to do battle.

_**(Title in honor of Charlie Harper from Two and a half men. Rest In Pieces, thanks to Rose)**_

**9-tailed reaper:** NyaNya Hidama, as you have probably already guessed, is derived from the Nibi's fireball attack and the Uchiha's fireball katon. As for the name, Yue was still quite childish when she made it. Also, the jutsu index hints that 'NyaNya' can also mean...well, go read a lemon (preferably a NaruIno or a NaruAnko. Don't know why, but those ones are always hot) and you will know.

Thanks for pointing me in the direction of a NaruSakuTayu fic. With some luck, I might find a non-lemon NaruSakuTayuIno fic. (Not that the lemons aren't good reads!) As a personal preference, I don't like reading Ino/Cho, Ino/Shika or InoSasu fics. Sasuke is as loving as a rigged bear trap and Choji or Shikamaru would be like brothers to her now. Just doesn't seem right to me. That's why I either pair her up with an OC or Naruto.

**Sky Zephyrus:** I always wondered why Gaara wasn't being monitored, aside from him carrying a demon and being psychotic enough to threaten his own family with death on a regular basis.

**SuperNeos2:** Ya don't get the nickname 'Hebi-homo' by being normal. Trust me, he is going to be trouble for everyone later.

**xNINJABLADE45x:** I have updated, but I will never truly believe that I am a great writer. It is my own personal humbleness/inferiority complex in action. Nothing anyone will say/do will ever make me believe differently. I could publish a novel and have it get five stars everywhere and high praise from everyone and I would still say that I could have done better.

**Thedarkpokemaster:** I assume you mean my non-canon battles. Again, martial arts practice as well as some kenjutsu goes a long way. Writing agility based battles is difficult since I am a power/defensive based fighter who focuses on sudden, devastating strikes, both with and without a katana, after I halt the enemy and their movements. Writing an Itachi battle should be very easy for me since he strikes me as the same type of fighter.

**Mission office takeover: COMPLETE!**

Yue: I took the mission office for these questions! It's a lot better than sitting in a dark room with a light overhead. (shoos the workers away)

Excele: It also saves me the trouble of making a new room/world for you, not that it would be hard. Just tiring explaining how it looked to everyone. By the way, I'm taking the seat to her right. Left seat is open to guests from the story. Currently, nobody is in it.

**Sky Zephyrus asks:** Do you like playing matchmaker with the people around you?

Yue: Matchmaker? What's that? You want me to make matches for people? I hate cigarettes. They smell nasty. You ever sniff Asuma? You wouldn't have to get close with my nose, he reeks of cigarettes.

Excele: He means helping people become romantic partners.

Yue: Oh, that. Not really. I wouldn't know how to do that anyways. Like my creator, I have had ZERO romantic experiences. Why? Am I playing matchmaker? Who am I hooking up?

Excele: Such a baka...

Yue: You're the baka!

Excele: Hello pot, meet kettle.

Yue, blushing with fury: N-N-NYAAA! (tries to scratch Excele, but gets restrained by Lee and Naruto. Bushy brows drags the crazy cat out for another FLAMES OF YOUTH lesson with Guy while Naruto sits down in the guest seat)

**Excele's turn to ask you!** (he points at reviewers like Uncle Sam from WWI recruitment posters)

**I ask:** Exactly how many girls have fallen for Naruto? The anime, manga, games and movies are included. Konoha girls must be as dumb as bricks and have the tastes of blind and deaf women if he is scoring hearts like this outside of Konoha. I know this list is probably nowhere near complete, since Naruto is an unintentional chick magnet, but here it is.

Girls that want to jump Naruto's bones, possibly one after the other and watching the whole time-

Sakura

Hinata

Isarabi

Hokuto

Koyuki

Amaru

Shion

Haruna

Ino (she did claim she could fall for him, so she is on the list for that)

Nazuna (from Path of the Ninja 2. She seemed to have a bit of a thing for Naruto. He definitely felt his heart skip a beat when he met her.)

Naruto, finally deciding to pay attention: What's that list for?

Excele: Girls that like you. I want to see if I got a complete list, so I am asking the readers and reviewers to help fill it out. I know I'm missing at least one, from when you had that dragon blade that let you use all basic elements.

Naruto: There's way too many girls there. I think only Sakura-chan likes me, but only a tiny bit. The other ones are just good friends. And Hinata is just weird, always fainting when I talk to her.

Excele, sweat dropping: I'm really beginning to wonder if Pain didn't just use his Rinnegan to enhance your natural denseness to fuel that Chibaku Tensei he used on you...

Naruto: Who?


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Reunions and hatred

**Disclaimer: Once more, I don't own Naruto. I own Yue.**

Naruto and Jiraiya were now in a clearing within the forest.

"Training time!" Naruto shouted, "I can feel it in the air! I'm going to get so much stronger!"

Jiraiya smirked and threw the water balloon into Naruto's hands. "This is for you."

Naruto frowned. "I don't want this, I want to be trained!"

Jiraiya muttered something about a stupid gaki. "You saw that jutsu, right?" Naruto nodded. "What did it look like?" Jiraiya asked.

"Those guys spun around," Naruto said while pouting slightly.

"That's right, it does look like they just spun away," Jiraiya said as the water balloon in his hand went wild. Naruto wondered what was going on, then the balloon exploded. "Tree climbing requires one to focus and keep a certain amount of chakra concentrated to their feet while taking a brief step. Water walking requires one to release constant stream of chakra while concentrating and focusing," Jiraiya explained, "this jutsu requires the water walking's constant chakra flow. This is quite simple, in theory. Just spin the chakra."

"Spin chakra?" Naruto asked, never having heard of such a thing.

"First, focus the chakra to you hands like in the tree climbing. Next, release the chakra and keep it coming out as if you were water walking," Jiraiya stated.

"So I just have to keep the chakra coming out of my hand! And make sure it is in the balloon while I spin it!" Naruto cheered.

Jiraiya frowned somewhat. "Sort of. Anyway, keep training until nightfall."

"Yes!" Naruto shouted and went to work.

_[Somewhere else]_

Yue was sweating a lot. No matter what she did, she didn't seem to be able to use any new sort of ability. She strained her jutsu and herself in an attempt to draw something out. Nothing. Well, at least she learned a new trick with her katon, but that couldn't be related to her being freed from that seal.. 

"Yue! I think you need to take a break!" Sakura shouted, worried that Yue would collapse. 

Yue growled. Was she one of those hanyō with no special abilities, no yōki? No, she had yōki. She could feel it, that blazing hot and freezing cold sensation within her. It had always been there, allowing her to swallow malice to power her unique jutsu.

Yue's eyes widened. Malice? That must be it! Yue hadn't even bothered attempting to try anything with that. She opened her mouth and started drawing in the mist-like malice from the forest.

Yue believed that 'malice,' as she called it, was a form of anger that nature held for mankind due to foresting, fires and hunting. Nature's hatred ran deep and forever, giving Yue a constant supply of energy to draw on. Without it, she couldn't have developed NyaNya Hidama, her signature katon.

Yue only took notice that the malice she was absorbing was re-energizing her when she felt a slight rush of strength. Not only that, she had already swallowed much more in a short time than she should have been able to. Perhaps she should fire off a NyaNya Hidama to test how powerful it was now.

She formed the fireball over her open mouth, just in case it became too large, and then fired it when it reached full size.

_[Next Day, Perverts' room as dubbed by Sakura]_

Jiraiya flung his arm out, hitting Naruto in the chest and waking him up. Naruto stared at his trembling hand. It felt worse than when he accidentally hit Yue while she was releasing one of her raiton. He then felt nature calling and left the room to visit the bathroom.

While watching the water flush, Naruto remembered how Jiraiya told him of his chakra rotation and how he was supposed to spin the water in the same direction as that rotation. After that, he learned that the jutsu he was learning was one used by the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato. It was an A-ranked jutsu, not something to take lightly. He had spent the rest of the day trying to break the balloon with no success.

Naruto left the bathroom to find an interesting sight: a cat playing with his water balloon. Naruto was about to scare it off, but it started bating the balloon around until it burst. Seeing that, Naruto realized why he had been failing.

"Wake up you perverted old man!" Naruto shouted at the prone form of Jiraiya. The old man showed no sign of waking up. "Take this then!" Naruto said evilly. A few moments later, water fell down on Jiraiya's face. "First step: clear!" Naruto declared as Jiraiya glared up at him.

A few moments later, Jiraiya told Naruto to do it again so he could see it. Naruto used his unusual method and broke another balloon. "See that!" Naruto shouted, only to see that Jiraiya had fallen asleep sitting up. "I'm going to put you in a retirement home! You can sleep all you want there!" Naruto shouted as he shoved the man over, getting fed up with this.

A little later on, Jiraiya apologized for falling asleep again. "What gave you the idea to do that anyways?"

"It was this guy," Naruto declared, holding up the hotel owner's cat, "he's named Shu."

"A cat again?" Jiraiya asked, happy that this one was male. He had enough trouble with female felines lately.

"He was beating up the balloon from all over the place. That's when I remembered how the balloon in your hand went wild before it broke. That was because you were spinning the water in every direction," Naruto explained, "before, I only spun it so it flattened the balloon out. I couldn't do it one handed, but I figured out a way to do it anyways."

"You did master step one then, time for the next one," Jiraiya said with a sigh and smirk. He then noticed that Naruto was feeling the chakra strain in his hands. He smiled, knowing that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Once again, Jiraiya and Naruto stood in the clearing. "Step two!" Jiraiya stated.

"Let's do this! Real training!" Naruto shouted. Jiraiya threw him another ball, this one being made of thick rubber. "Not again!" Naruto cried.

"Break this ball," Jiraiya challenged. He then broke his ball with ease. "This one will keep you busy for a while." Naruto attempted his improvised technique, but the ball didn't explode or break. "This time, you have to raise the power of the spin," Jiraiya explained. Naruto was wondering if he needed a new method for this one. "Well, I'm going now, for more information," Jiraiya said while turning away.

"Hey! Aren't you going to teach me!" Naruto shouted.

"I am teaching you. Learning isn't a simple feat. Keep acting like a spoiled brat and you can just give up. Somethings need to be done on your own in this world," Jiraiya said coldly.

Naruto frowned. "At least give me a tip." Jiraiya held his hand out, asking to be payed for the tip. "You are a bad example of an adult! What makes you a great ninja? Is it that easy to become a Sannin?" Naruto shouted.

_[Hours later]_

Naruto was getting tired. He sat down and started to think about how to break the damn ball.

"Nothing is working out right! Even that fireball from yesterday wasn't much different from normal!"

"C-calm down. It isn't like you will gain any new powers overnight. These things take time. How long did you say it took you to even learn how to swallow that stuff?"

Naruto recognized those voices. It was Yue and Sakura. The two walked into the clearing, surprised to see Naruto there. "Hey!" he greeted.

Yue came over and sat down too, with her legs folded under her. Sakura sat with her back against a nearby tree. "Hello Naruto," Sakura said.

"What were you talking about? Something about no new powers..." Naruto would rather ask Sakura on a date, but he was training seriously right now.

"Yue is trying to see if she has any new powers after having that seal removed from her back," Sakura explained for Yue, "she hasn't had much luck yet."

Naruto sighed. "That's a lot better than me. I can't get this next part right at all!"

Yue frowned. "What are you trying to do?"

Naruto held up one of the rubber balls. "I have to break this ball."

Yue took the ball from him. "Isn't that easy to do? Just stab it with a ku-"

"With chakra only!" Naruto cut in, "I need to break it with spinning chakra."

"Spinning chakra?" Yue asked, much like Naruto had before.

Naruto told her about how Jiraiya could tear the ball apart effortlessly. He then explained how he destroyed the water balloon, even showing how it didn't work too well on the rubber one. He then grumbled about raising its power to the point where it destroyed the ball.

"That's all?" Yue asked after Naruto finished.

Naruto and Sakura stared at Yue as if she had grown a second head. "What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked. Yue held up the ball in her left hand and Naruto saw the ball deform, right before it was torn into two halves. "How did you do that?" he shouted.

"Spinning it violently," Yue stated, "I just overclocked the chakra flow and spin. It's a basic method of harnessing yōki based attacks, which I haven't quite worked out yet, or controlling katon jutsu. That's how I created NyaNya Hidama. It sticks together because it spins on a central point of yōki and chakra."

Naruto flinched slightly. The way she mentioned yōki made Naruto wonder if she knew of the Kyūbi sealed inside him. Then again, Yue may be able to sense demons since she was half demon. Yeah, that explained it.

Sakura remembered how most of Sasuke's katon did seem to have a spin to them. That explained how Yue could already spin her chakra so easily. Too bad Naruto couldn't use katon.

Yue frowned, then formed an unstable whirl of chakra in her palm. "This is actually kind of difficult. I've never dealt with pure chakra before, so I really have to concentrate to do this. Quite a powerful jutsu."

"That's only the second of three steps," Naruto said.

Yue's eyes opened wide, the chakra falling apart. _'Step 2? Are you telling me that this jutsu is learned in pieces? If I find this part difficult, how hard is the whole jutsu?'_ She stood up. "I guess I'll get going now, I was just heading off to try and figure out if I can do anything new," she smiled slightly, "maybe this will help me out, since it's more natural for me than regular jutsu." She waved as she walked away.

"Naruto, good luck with the new jutsu," Sakura said, then followed Yue.

Naruto stared at the ball. He needed to spin the chakra as hard as he could. That was easier said than done with how tired he was and the dull throb in his arms.

After a few more hours, Naruto was exhausted. His hands felt almost completely numb, aside from pain. He never knew that rubber was so tough. He knew he needed some rest or he wouldn't get anywhere. He fell asleep outside, just like when he was in Wave.

Late in the morning, Naruto was staring at the ball, hating it now. No matter how hard he tried, it didn't work out.

Clomp, clomp.

"What is it Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked, knowing the sound of the old man's clogs anywhere.

"Lunch, go to town and buy us some," Jiraiya ordered.

"Why?" Naruto shouted, "I'm trying to master this!"

Jiraiya sighed. "I'm training you, so get with the lunch fetching. Think of it as tuition."

Naruto ran into town, wanting to get back to his training. While there, he saw a kid and his father spending time together. Not for the first or last time, Naruto felt a stab of loneliness.

When Naruto returned, he looked at Jiraiya. "Can't you help me out a bit?"

"Remember, I'm trying to find Tsunade, so I don't have time to do stuff like that," Jiraiya said. He noticed Naruto's expression. "This is something that you need to learn on your own. You need to think of your own way to do this. If I gave you hints, you would never progress any further. Remember, that forehead protector means you're a ninja, not some little civilian brat who needs help all the time." He stood up. "We will eat while walking to town."

"I know that already," Naruto said with a fake grin, "I don't need to hear it again."

_[Tanzaku Quarters, same time]_

Yue was unconscious from chakra exhaustion. Sakura didn't know what to do and it seemed bad this time. Yue was sweating and panting the whole time. What made it worse was Yue barely managed to make it back to town before collapsing. They were too far away from the hotel for Sakura to carry her back and who knew where Jiraiya-sama and Naruto were.

"Next casino!"

Sakura looked back and saw a strange sight. A beautiful blonde woman with a killer figure and a black haired woman carrying a pig were walking towards them. From their movements, Sakura knew that both had some ninja training. She ran up to them. "Excuse me, my teammate passed out from chakra exhaustion, I was wondering if you knew of a shop that carried some soldier pills," Sakura said.

The blonde looked at Sakura's forehead protector, noticing the leaf symbol. Sakura winced. What if they were from Oto or something. She never thought about that.

"Sorry, but there isn't a place like that in this town," the blonde said, "best to go to ano-!" She stopped in mid-word, having looked at Yue. Not only did she see the signs of chakra strain and exhaustion, but she recognized the girl. _'That's the one who's throat I sealed up three years ago. What is she doing all the way out here? Could someone be looking for me?'_

"Ano..." Sakura started, "thank you for taking the time to tell me that. I guess I'll just wait it out."

The black haired woman whispered something to the blonde. "Ugh. Fine! Let me look at her," the blonde said as she went over to Yue. She looked the girl over, then placed one hand on Yue's forehead and her other one over the girl's heart. Sakura watched as a faint green glow surrounded the woman's hands. Within a few moments, Yue stopped sweating and her breathing evened out. "There. She should still rest a bit since I eased the damage to her chakra system. It will still take time for her chakra to fully replenish itself. Don't let her strain herself or it could be really bad," the blonde warned as she stood up, then looked at her travel companion, "come on, that casino is calling to me!"

Sakura stared after the woman, wondering what had just happened. Whatever it was, Sakura found it fascinating.

_[Nighttime, Naruto's training ground]_

Naruto growled at himself, angry that he had made no progress whatsoever. Why was it so easy for Yue and Ero-sennin? Could it be that both could do it because of experience? Maybe it was just easier for people who could use katon. Wait, did Ero-sennin know any katon? He said he knew a thousand jutsu, so maybe he can use a few katon.

"I need to let my chakra go crazy, then make it burst somehow," Naruto grumbled to himself. He started to mold chakra when it hit him. The pain flared up whenever he started the exercise. Maybe more pain meant more power. All he had to do was bring the pain, and chakra levels, up to his limit. He felt the dull ache in his hands, but pushed it further up, ignoring the pain.

It hit the limit and Naruto's chakra went wild, deforming the ball. Naruto pushed more chakra in and the ball burst open on one side.

"Finally, some improvement," Jiraiya said from the edge of the clearing.

"I only broke it a little. It didn't explode like when you did it!" Naruto shouted. He didn't mention Yue since her and the old pervert didn't seem to get along.

"Sheesh. Trying to praise the brat doesn't work," Jiraiya grumbled. A snap was heard and he held out a popsicle for Naruto. "Here, take it," Jiraiya offered, "a treat for doing so well."

Naruto took it and was about to eat it when Jiraiya interrupted again.

"Getting this far is good. The rest of the jutsu is quite simple. Let me help out a bit this time," Jiraiya said as he drew a spiral on Naruto's palm.

"What is this?" Naruto asked. If this was help, it sucked.

"Look," Jiraiya said as he moved the band for his arm guard, revealing the same mark on his palm.

"The same mark, but how is it help?" Naruto asked.

"Let me show you. Make sure to pay attention," Jiraiya instructed. He then showed Naruto a plain piece of paper, then turned it away for a moment. When he held it out again, Naruto looked at the dead center, where the same spiral was.

"I see that!" Naruto shouted excitedly, "but what does it mean?"

Jiraiya sighed and explained how Naruto concentrated on the mark rather than the rest of the paper. Naruto quickly realized that concentration was the hint. Jiraiya told him that whenever he focused chakra in his right hand, he should focus on the mark. Naruto didn't even bother asking why Jiraiya still had the mark if he had mastered it.

"Let's do this!" Naruto cried, pumped up for more training.

"Time for me to hunt for some information," Jiraiya stated.

"You suck!" Naruto shouted, throwing one of the many rubber balls at Jiraiya's face, "at least say something cool and sensei-like!"

"STRIKE!" Jiraiya shouted as he caught the ball with his teeth. "That's enough catch for now," he said as he spat the ball out, "see ya!" He walked away, ignoring Naruto's shouts. He wished he could tell Naruto that the Rasengan was a move that Naruto needed to master on his own, just like his father before him.

_[A hidden location]_

Orochimaru was in agony. His left arm felt like it was on fire. Damn that old man and his jutsu. It had taken his arm from him. He thanked whatever had allowed him to free his right arm, saving it from this pain.

"Orochimaru-sama, your medicine," an Oto-nin said as he held it out.

Without warning, Orochimaru summoned a snake and had it tear the man's throat open, spraying blood everywhere. It helped alleviate some of the pain, or seemed to anyways. Sadism always made him feel good.

"Just take the medicine," Kabuto said from the doorway, "couldn't you have killed him in a cleaner way? I always clean up after you."

"It doesn't work," Orochimaru hissed.

"It may not work, but it should cut the pain a bit. I did make it myself for that express purpose," Kabuto informed his master.

"Sensei's last ditch effort to destroy me. It is fitting that I am in agony now," Orochimaru glared at his little spy, "did you find her?"

Kabuto nodded. "She is in the Tanzaku Quarters." Orochimaru chuckled to himself a little. "It won't be easy to capture her though," Kabuto warned.

"The most potent medicine is always the most dangerous to collect," Orochimaru said with a sick grin.

_[Naruto's training ground]_

Naruto lifted himself off the ground, tired and in pain. His hands were trembling from the strain. He grabbed another ball and started to concentrate on a single point.

Jiraiya with a ball in his mouth came to mind, destroying Naruto's concentration and dropping him on the dirt in a fit of laughter. There was no way he could think straight with that image in his head.

Two more parties learned of Tsunade's location.

_[Casino. Tanzaku District]_

Rattle! Rattle! Rattle!

Ding! Ding! Ding!

WHROOOO! WHROOOO!

"Wow! You did it!" the brunette happily cried as she hugged the pig.

"This can't be good," Tsunade muttered, "I never get jackpots."

A little while later, Tsunade and her companion were walking around, seemingly looking for another casino to hit while the lucky streak was still hot.

The brunette, Shizune, noticed her master's odd behaviour. "Why aren't you happy? Didn't you win?"

"Let's get out of town. I don't like the atmosphere around here," Tsunade half suggested, half warned. If Konoha sent two kunoichi, one of which she knew, to this town, chances were that others had come as well. She did not want to return to that village after all that had happened there.

"What? But you have to see the castle when you come to the Tanzaku Quarters!" Shizune complained.

Tsunade sighed. "Fine, just a quick peek and then we leave!"

_[Near Tanzaku Quarters]_

Orochimaru and Kabuto were making slow, but steady progress. He would have summoned a snake to get there quicker, but Kabuto had reported that Konoha had sent Naruto and Jiraiya to a town near Tanzaku Quarters. He couldn't risk attracting them, not in his current state.

"I know about Tsunade," Kabuto said out of nowhere, "I am a trained medic." Orochimaru, already knowing this, remained silent. "It's standard practice to have one medical ninja in the standard four man team. A while ago, it was nearly impossible to do it though..." Kabuto stated, "with a medical ninja around, the casualties are lowered and the unit can function longer. It turned the tides of war once."

"That would work for veteran and inexperienced squads alike," Orochimaru said, "ignoring such a thing would increase the amount of dead during a war." He chuckled a bit. "Humans don't realize what they have before it is gone. I have a plan for those who seek the legendary medic of the Sannin. They will be drawn into my trap, becoming the catalyst of my full revival."

Naruto was in more agony then ever before. He had hit rock bottom with his reserves. He was about to take a little nap when a leaf fell onto his forehead, reminding him of how he, Kiba, Choji and Shikamaru were lectured by Iruka. He said that they lacked focus and tried to teach them an exercise technique used in the past. As expected, Naruto and the others hadn't paid attention. He regret not listening back then since that very same problem stood before him.

But maybe it wasn't too late. Naruto adjusted the mark on his hand, changing it into Konoha's emblem. "One last time, that's all I need to master it," Naruto told himself as he got another ball. In his mind, the symbol came into view and a whirlwind of chakra flowed towards it. At the critical moment, Naruto unleashed his chakra and the ball, as well as a good portion of the ground, were demolished in a vortex of pure power. The force of the blast threw him away, right over to the waiting Jiraiya.

"D-did it," Naruto groaned.

"Yeah, you passed alright," Jiraiya said. _'Wow. He concentrated so hard he burned his hands with chakra. Never seen that outside of katon or raiton training.'_

"Stage three. Let's do it," Naruto muttered.

"Later. First, we need to meet Tsunade," Jiraiya said. He decided not to go get the cat and the pink haired girl. Those two had changed hotels to one that was very close to where Tsunade was. It was like that idiot cat girl had some sixth sense or something. Maybe that's where Tsunade's luck went.

_[Tanzaku Castle]_

Shizune was smiling as much as she could, truly enjoying herself. "Even from down here, it is a majestic castle."

"Hurry up, we need to get out of here," Tsunade warned.

Shizune pouted. "Just enjoy the view. It isn't like we have to pay to look or anything."

Tsunade frowned. "The castle isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so we can see it some other time."

The castle crumbled to the ground, startling the two women. From the cloud of dust, a giant snake rose up with a very familiar man upon its head.

"Orochimaru," Tsunade growled.

"Found you," Orochimaru hissed.

_[Jiraiya and Naruto]_

"Let's go!" Jiraiya boldly proclaimed as he pointed forward like Lee and Guy on a Youth trip.

Naruto pouted. "Stop acting like a kid."

"What's the matter with you?" Jiraiya asked.

"I'm in the middle of training and you stopped it for a woman. Again!" Naruto shouted, "I'm on step two of three!"

"You can practice while we walk," Jiraiya informed the boy.

"Really?" Naruto was excited again. Jiraiya blew up a balloon and tossed it to Naruto. "Again?" Naruto grumbled, "it's just a normal balloon."

"Step one: rotation. Step 2: powerful rotation," Jiraiya stated, "this is step three." He held up his left hand, which held another balloon.

Nothing happened. Naruto honestly expected another exploding ball. He had forgotten about when Jiraiya had blasted those thugs away. "Nothing's happening! How is that a third step?" Naruto shouted.

Jiraiya chuckled. "That's a sign I mastered this jutsu already. Let me show you what is happening inside the balloon with my right hand," Jiraiya said. He held up his right hand and Naruto watched as a ball of glowing chakra spun into existence. "Like a mini-hurricane, huh?" Jiraiya asked.

"So that is what's inside the balloon?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya nodded. "The third step is taking steps one and two and keeping it in a stable form."

"So I just need to go at full power and stopping it from destroying the balloon!" Naruto declared. Jiraiya nodded, happy that Naruto was starting to think things through. "But why?" Naruto asked.

_'I thought too soon,'_ Jiraiya thought to himself. "Watch, this is just the first two steps." He created the whirlpool-like mass of chakra needed for step two and struck a tree, leaving one heck of a spiral wound in the bark. "This is the completed jutsu." He created the ball and thrust his hand forward, burrowing a large hole straight through the tree. "You learn how to stabilize the jutsu and it won't lose any power. In fact, it gets even stronger," Jiraiya explained.

Naruto decided to try it, just to test how difficult it was. As expected, he blasted the balloon apart.

"Hey! You have to go at full power!" Jiraiya lectured.

Naruto realized the difficulty. It was an A-rank jutsu after all. There was no way he could master it so easily. This would take some serious hard work.

"Lesson's over for now, let's go," Jiraiya ordered, "practice while walking."

"What! But I need to fo-" Naruto started.

"We waited for you to fully recover. Tsunade is a bit of a drifter, so she might not stay in any one place for too long," Jiraiya explained. Naruto grumbled again. "Stop complaining. It's not like somebody will show up and keep her there long enough for us to catch up," Jiraiya joked.

"Fine," Naruto grumbled.

_[Ruins of Tanzaku Castle]_

"It hasn't been anywhere near long enough since I last saw you Orochimaru," Tsunade spat out.

Orochimaru grinned. "I was looking all over for you."

"Why? Feeling nostalgic or something? I heard that happens a lot with old men." Tsunade really wanted to get out of there. Nothing good ever came from being around the traitorous snake.

"I have come to ask a favour of an old friend," Orochimaru said as the medication wore off slightly, letting his pain show on his face. Tsunade noticed numerous signs of injury and exhaustion written all over Orochimaru's face. What intrigued her was his left arm. It kept twitching, as if the nerves were extremely damaged. His right arm seemed to be fine, so it was a localized problem. Since Orochimaru, who had some decent medical skill, hadn't been able to heal it on his own, it must be a curse of some kind.

"I'm sure you've noticed already his injury. That is the favour he wishes for you to take care of," Kabuto said.

"I'm not a medic anymore, go find somebody else," Tsunade said.

Kabuto adjusted his glasses. "Nobody other than the legendary medic of the Sannin can heal it."

"That isn't any normal injury. What happened to you?" Tsunade asked.

Orochimaru chuckled. "Just a little forget-me-not from when I killed Sensei."

"Monster," Tsunade growled.

"Heh, don't glare at me like that. Anything with form is destined for destruction, especially humans," Orochimaru's face twisted into a sick grin, "you know that better than anyone, since two of your precious people already met their end." He chuckled again. "Still, not even I could have sent them off in such a brutal fashion." He would never tell her that he himself had killed her little brother in hopes of finding some of the Shodai Hokage's bloodline. He already knew Tsunade didn't have it. It didn't matter, he found a way to harness it anyways, just not for himself, yet.

Shizune employed her hidden needle launchers, but Kabuto blocked them.

"Shizune, stand down!" Tsunade ordered. "Time hasn't done anything to improve your personality, has it?" Tsunade asked her former teammate. She struck the wall, destroying it with little effort. "Mention them again and that arm will be the only part of your body that will be whole," she warned.

_'She does NOT have a lover!'_ Kabuto thought. "We didn't come here for a fight, we came here to ask for your help," Kabuto said, hoping she didn't aim one of those punches at his head.

"Get lost or I'll hit you to Iwa!" Tsunade shouted.

"We will offer something in return!" Kabuto tried.

"Five seconds. Leave within that time or they'll be scooping parts of you up all over the elemental nations," Tsunade threatened. She started counting down.

Just before she reached zero, Orochimaru grinned. "I can bring back your brother and lover with

your uncle's kinjutsu." That stopped everyone cold. "Heh. We aren't dead yet, so I figure that means that you are considering my offer," Orochimaru hissed.

"I know that chick," a casino worker said as he looked at a thirty year old picture of Tsunade, "she was going to try her luck in 'that' place."

"That place?" Jiraiya asked.

"Heh heh. Kid, this game is real easy. I shake up the dice in this cup and place it on the ground. Before I lift it up, you call even or odd. After the cup is moved, add up what the dice show and you win or lose," another guy said.

"I'm busy here!" Naruto grumbled, "besides, that old perv blew all my money on women and booze."

The worker in front of Jiraiya tossed the dice into his cup and quickly shook it before slamming it onto the ground. "Can't go giving things away, so we bet for it. You win, I talk. I win, you fork over some money to try again."

"Sure. I'm no legendary sucker," Jiraiya said with a grin.

"Even or odd?" the man asked.

_'Fifty is an even number, so let's go with it!'_ Jiraiya thought. "Even!"

"Odd makes it my win," the man said as he slowly uncovered the dice.

_'Shit! It's odd!'_ Jiraiya thought. Lucky for him, the worker was the type who liked dramatics and hadn't looked at the result yet. Even luckier, Naruto's latest attempt to master the Rasengan failed and released a blast of wind, rolling the five die to four, making it even. "Ha! I win, now tell me where she went," Jiraiya said, thanking Naruto's lack of proper training.

At the casino where Tsunade (temporarily) struck it rich, Jiraiya was complaining about Tsunade being gone again. While he was talking with one of the attendants, Naruto found a coin on the ground and put it in the machine. Due to him being a shinobi, no adults confiscated the money when he struck a jackpot.

"Gama-chan~! You really are at your best when full of ryo!" Naruto cooed to his frog wallet.

_'Great! The kid sucks with ninjutsu, but rocks casinos like Tsunade does in her fantasies. Can't let him learn about this or he'll have casino thugs hunting him down because THEY are in debt to HIM.'_ Jiraiya sighed. "I need to get to Tanzaku castle. I should have a great view of the Quarters from the top tower," he turned to Naruto, "let's go. Double time!"

Orochimaru's voice continued to slither into Tsunade's ears like some forbidden promise. "I can see it in your eyes, Tsunade. The desire to meet those three again."

"What do you intend to do after I heal you?" Tsunade asked.

"Since you are doing me such a great favour, I'll throw this in for free," Orochimaru hissed, "once and for all, I'm going to crush Konoha!"

"Destroy...Konoha?" Shizune gasped.

"Your reply?" Kabuto asked.

"You traitorous bastards! Tsunade-sama! Don't listen to anything they say! Everything that flows from that snake's mouth is filth! Do you honestly believe your brother and my uncle would be happy about how you brought them back, or that you brought them back at all? They are gone and nothing will ever-" Shizune shouted.

"ENOUGH!" Tsunade roared.

"You can think about it for a while," Kabuto said, "as you know, this jutsu requires an equal sacrifice of life for a life. We have two that are suitable for the jutsu, but you can provide anyone you want."

"Don't listen to them!" Shizune shouted, "they are weak right now! If we fight together, we can kill them both!"

Orochimaru lifted his right arm up to his mouth and bit, drawing blood. The effect was instant. Tsunade backed off and shivered while hugging herself. Right now, she was weaker than anyone. "Hemophobia, the fear of blood," Orochimaru turned way, "I wait for your answer." He and Kabuto left.

Ten minutes later, Naruto and Jiraiya arrived on the scene. Having lost Tsunade again, the two started to wander in search of Jiraiya's 'den of information.' He found the haven, but was shocked to see Yue and Sakura there. Sakura was trying to stop Yue from going inside.

"A pub?" Naruto shouted, "this is your den of information?"

"Idiot, a pub holds all sorts of information," the white haired man said as he tried to get by the two girls without getting caught up in their problem.

Yue growled and grabbed hold of Jiraiya's summoning scroll, trying to use him as further leverage to move forward. "Senju-sama is nearby!" Yue growled as she tried to move forward.

Jiraiya got annoyed and grabbed the two girls by their collars, carting them into the pub. Upon entering, he saw a drunken Tsunade sitting at a table. "Ah! Hime," he greeted.

Tsunade looked at him and grinned wickedly. "You keep picking up younger and younger girls," she remarked.

"Huh?" Jiraiya then noticed he was holding Yue and Sakura up like freshly killed game. He promptly and unceremoniously dropped them onto the floor and attempted to explain it away.

Yue had other plans. She tripped him and ran over him to Tsunade's table. "Senju-sama! I wish to thank you for saving my life three years ago!" Yue dropped onto the ground in a bow of thankfulness so extreme it set Guy's 'Youth sense' off back in Konoha.

"I-It's alright," Tsunade stuttered, startled into soberness by the girl's sudden humbleness.

"It's not alright!" Yue shouted, "because of what I did, you should have left me to die! I'm nothing more than a wretched half breed who trails misfortune in her wake!"

Tsunade was now completely sober, for the moment. Everything Mitarashi had said about the girl was coming true. Kazeneko did have major self-confidence issues. Given her upbringing, it was no surprise that she had such a low opinion of herself.

Through out all of this, Naruto wondered if Tsunade was really fifty years old.

After the meals were ordered and everyone was seated, the conversation started.

"I met up with a bearer of bad tidings today," Tsunade said offhandedly.

"Orochimaru? What did he want?" Jiraiya tested. He already had a good idea of what Orochimaru wanted, but he wouldn't reveal his hand yet. Even Tsunade could get lucky once in a blue moon.

"Nothing, just said hello," Tsunade lied after sending a dirty glare at Shizune, silencing the woman. "Sooo. Why'd you come looking for me?" Tsunade asked, completely drunk again.

"Truth be told, Konoha wants you to become the Godaime Hokage," Jiraiya said bluntly. "Orochimaru. He..."

Tsunade cut in. "I know, he told me already."

Yue growled. She didn't even realize that she started to activate _that_ jutsu, making a few lines appear on the back of her right hand. She cancelled it. _'Orochimaru. This jutsu will finish what Hokage-sama couldn't finish. Even if it kills me, it will kill you first.'_

"Who is this Orochimaru?" Naruto asked.

"He is like me and Tsunade, a Sannin," Jiraiya stated flatly.

"The Sannin were loyal to Konoha, right? Why would he kill the old man?" Naruto shouted.

"Who's this brat?" Tsunade asked.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Jiraiya said, knowing that Tsunade would know who he was right away. "Well? Are you going to become Hokage or what?"

"No. I won't become Hokage," Tsunade stated coldly.

"That brings back some memories of when I asked you out all the time. Course, you mostly told me to get a life or stop peeking in the baths," Jiraiya said, "then there was the time you told me to die, then punched me across Konoha."

"It was a Hokage interview? Why didn't you tell me that?" Naruto shouted, "you said she was coming back as a medic, not Hokage! She just said no too!"

"Calm down Naruto. The only one suited to become the Godaime Hokage is Tsunade." Jiraiya sighed, tired of Naruto's random outbursts. "Tsunade turned the tide of many battles and nobody, not even her handpicked apprentice, Shizune, has been able to acquire her level of skill. She is also the granddaughter of Senju Hashirama, the Shodai Hokage." He smiled slightly. "The council made this decision. Her healing Sasuke and Kakashi is just a bonus."

"Jiraiya... Compared to your last apprentice, this kid lacks class, looks and, if his loud mouth is any evidence, skill," Tsunade said after examining Naruto for a few moments.

"Comparing anyone to Minato will make them look bad," Jiraiya said in an attempt to cheer Naruto up, "but he truly was a prodigy. He was also a lady killer like me!"

"I'll agree with the prodigy part, but you aren't even remotely good looking," Tsunade deadpanned, "but even with all that talent, he was the shortest lived Hokage -no- shortest lived Kage ever in the history of ninjutsu." She looked away slightly. "He gave up his life for his village and all he got was a sad funeral, a few pages in the history books and his face carved into a mountain. Life isn't like money, you can't risk it, lose it and win it back. Dealer takes all. I'm a horrible gambler, but even I know a shit bet when I see it." She took a swig of her sake. "My grandfather and his brother both focused on bringing peace to Konoha, but died dreaming like idiots. Every Hokage has bet their lives on the village and got barely anything in return."

"Tsunade... You've changed..." Jiraiya gaped. Tsunade, even when a bottle away from Shinigami's door, never got like this.

"Age brings wisdom and I'm fifty," Tsunade stated in a warbling manner, the alcohol working on her. "Sensei was killed because he was too old for dreaming."

Jiraiya and Yue glared at her. Unlike Jiraiya, Yue couldn't keep her anger in check as well and was starting to let wisps of black chakra leak from her, scaring the customers. If that didn't scare them, the fact that she had managed to dig halfway through the table with her claws did. Even Naruto was getting ready to belt her, and he didn't hit women if he could avoid it.

"Hokage is a fool's position. Only an idiotic loser would take it," Tsunade said.

Naruto jumped up on the table, fist cocked back to smash Tsunade's face in. Jiraiya caught the boy, holding him back. "Let me go!" Naruto shouted.

"You can be arrested, you know. She is a senior," Jiraiya warned, "and this is a pub. Only bars allow fights."

Tsunade was amused by Naruto's outburst, already figuring out what was about to come from his mouth in a few moments. Shizune was seriously worried now. Her master never acted like this.

"People who trample all over Hokage and the Yondaime. I can't stand still when I hear it!" He glared down at the woman. "I don't care if you're a woman, I'm going to kick your ass all the way back to Konoha!"

Tsunade quickly stood up, keeping her face level with Naruto's. "You've got more balls than Jiraiya ever did gaki," Tsunade muttered, "let's go outside and settle this."

Once outside, Jiraiya stood in position to judge the little street fight. Shizune and Sakura stood off to the side, worried about their respective friends. Yue had hopped onto the roof of the pub, standing watch like a malevolent gargoyle. She was still emitting KI, but it was much weaker now.

"I'm a Sannin, I don't need to take a fight with a shinobi wannabe seriously," Tsunade said with both drunken and experience fuelled confidence. Naruto growled at her, a warning to shut up. "My pinky would be more than enough, but I'll use my index finger to put you down," Tsunade mocked.

Naruto charged forward, drawing a kunai and some shuriken, throwing the latter at her. He continued his rush, pushing his speed to its maximum as he drove his kunai at her hip, aiming to wound her. Tsunade ducked the shuriken and poked her finger through the ring of his kunai, hitting his wrist and injuring it slightly. She took full control of the kunai and used her index finger to flick Naruto's forehead protector into the air at the same time she threw his kunai into the air. While his eyes were on the flying objects, Tsunade lined her hand up for a finger flick to the head.

"Huh?" Naruto managed, right before Tsunade flicked him and threw him back a few yards. As he was getting up, his kunai landed two inches from his crotch. Naruto felt his soul slip slightly at the near miss.

"Before I knock you out, I want to know something," Tsunade said, "why do you get so excited at the word _Hokage_?"

"I want to become Hokage, unlike you," Naruto said as he got up and safely stowed his kunai. He did not want to see it land like that again. "My dream is to become Hokage!" Naruto declared, reminding Tsunade of those she had lost. Naruto saw that something about his statement shook her enough for her guard to completely crumble. Now was his chance. _'Fox! Time to pay up!'_ His right hand blurred as he he formed an almost completely stable Rasengan and ran at his opponent. Tsunade was shocked to see such a young child wielding that jutsu, but it wasn't enough. She struck the ground with her finger, shattering the ground under Naruto's feet. Naruto's Rasengan hit the ground, causing less than a quarter of the damage it could have caused.

_'Whoa... She still has it. I remember that time my __Tōton jutsu__ failed while I was peeking in on her in the springs. It took a month for them just to reset my bones...'_ Jiraiya thought, feeling a twinge of pain or two.

Tsunade watched as Shizune made sure Naruto was alright. _'So he used the Rasengan.'_ She looked down at the damage. _'Well, tried to anyways. That was nowhere near as powerful as the real one.'_ She turned to her former teammate. "Jiraiya... Teaching him Rasengan, filling his head with Hokage non-sense. It was all you, wasn't it?"

"Well, sort of. I only taught him two jutsu though," Jiraiya said weakly, "and his head was already filled with dreams when I found him."

"That's a technique only you and the Yondaime should use," she scolded as she walked over to the white haired man, "you shouldn't teach what can't be learned. He should face reality: he will never become Hokage."

"**Kajou Tama!"** Eyes shot up to see a strange fireball spiralling down at Tsunade.

Everyone jumped away as the ball exploded into a vortex of flame, leaving a fair sized crater in the ground.

Jiraiya peeked out from behind the building he had scurried behind, scared out of his mind. _'W-What was that? A new jutsu? It looked like her NyaNya Hidama, but different! Could it be that when I unsealed her, I altered her jutsu too?'_ He took one look at Yue, who had dropped to the ground after burning a fair portion of it to brittle glass. _'Nope, she's just pissed off! That was a brand new jutsu. The anger of women...scary!'_ Jiraiya quickly retreated.

"I should really stop trying to read people." Yue muttered to herself, "I'm wrong far too often."

"About what?" Tsunade asked, her courage mostly alcohol based now.

Yue glared at the woman, her pupils completely reduced to slits despite it being nighttime. "You are nothing more than a weak willed coward!" she roared, "I'll crush you for what you said about Sandaime-sama!"

Tsunade glared back at the girl. "Even if you are a hanyō, you will never stand a chance against me, a Sannin."

Yue growled as she lowered herself to to all fours, claws digging into the ground. She started smashing the ground with her fist repeatedly, seeming to vent her rage on the very earth. Without warning, one of her punches kicked up a blast of dirt that obscured her from view. When it cleared, Yue ripped her arm out of the ground. A strong blast of water shot up from where she had buried her fist.

Naruto and Jiraiya were stunned. Both knew she had at least trained a bit with Guy since she could use some of his techniques, but to be able to open the Hachimon as well, that was insane. Jiraiya figured she didn't need gates due to her tougher body being able to take the strain of Guy's techniques, but it seemed that he was wrong about that.

Shizune and Tsunade knew better though. "Amazing, so you can open the gates, just like all other hanyō," Tsunade mused, "that might make it a bit easier to hit me, but with only the Shomon, it's useless to try."

Yue growled menacingly, her eyes saying she wasn't going to back down.

Tsunade grinned back. "Fine then, little neko. Let's play a bit."

**A/N~**

Kitten VS Slug!

Transient Nobody VS Transient Princess!

Washboard Runt VS DD (?) Bombshell!

That is what is coming next in Konoha's Two Demons!

(Don't expect too much though! Can't break the story too much)

Note for Part II: I think I may have to make Sasuke a better, faster swordsman to make some scenes work out. From what I can tell, Sasuke is sort of okay when it comes to sword fighting in Part II.

I will explain my absence next chapter, so there will be no review responses from me. Yue will still do her question period, but it will be her last one for Part I. If you got anything to ask, do so or hold on til she returns to answer in Part II. As a bonus, the Necessary Darkness version of Yue will be there too. I must warn you that she is very different. She won't be accepting any questions either.

I'm also going to release another fic. It is a NaruOCSakuIno fic. It is actually listed as my next project, but it is itching to get released! I will release it on Christmas Eve, so look forward to it.

Jutsu Index-

**Kajou Tama** [Spiral Shell] – B-rank katon derived from NyaNya Hidama and Kiba's Gatsūga. Yue alters the flame into a shelled form and adds a revolving plume of flame to the front, creating a drilling fireball jutsu. Tighter flames increase the piercing ability of this jutsu, but not its power. Explosion is smaller, but far more intense. Designed to punch through strong defences and inflict crippling damage. Also used to breach doors or walls.

**All:** I'm getting tired of people saying Yue is a Mary Sue. Why am I tired of it? Tell me, does everyone in this world aspire to be locked in a cage in a basement, not learning how to speak, being treated like an unwanted disease and almost being executed by a friend? If that's the case, then something is really wrong with the world.

Here's the truth: every jōnin and above ranked ninja (Kabuto included) can kill Yue in Part I. The only reason nobody has is because nobody sees her as a viable threat. Her powers are rough and unrefined, though that is slowly changing with her newest katon. There is no reason to get serious against an amateur. She was promoted due to her chakra levels, unique jutsu and the fact that the council wanted her dead.

To satisfy the need some of you have to see the crap kicked out of her, it's on its way in spades. I will also reveal some more differences between the two Yues (nothing massively spoiling, so put that sword away, Uchiha!) as well as reveal some of the weaknesses Yue possesses.

**9-tailed reaper:** Hmm. Maybe I should post the current info I have on two other projects of mine. One is a NaruSakuInoTayu fic. In basic, Naruto gets fed up with Sakura and Ino's physical and verbal abuse. With a bit of help from the Kyūbi, he becomes a total badass. Along the way, he 'tames' Tayuya after finding her badly injured from Temari's attack.

The other one is a NaruSakuIsa fic with OCInoTayu on the side. It is called Broken 7. Naruto leaves team 7 after the Wave mission because he feels like he isn't wanted. He forms his own team from inactive genin and an inactive jōnin. OC is part of a non-canon clan, has roughly average stats (mostly 2 and 3) and specializes in... (dramatic drum roll) stealth and assassination! I can't believe it! A true ninja in Naruto? If I post the fic, the world will END! (contains perverted Tayuya)

Found a NaruSakuInoTayu fic. Actually, it is a seemingly dead Naru/Ino/Saku/Tayu/Aya/Shizu/Tema/Kure/Ten/Yugi/Hina/Kin/FemHaku/Anko fic. Personally, the most girls I'd ever pair him up with is nine, which I've only done once, normal number is between two and four. The fic with the super harem is called Icha Icha Engagements and it would have been good if it continued. Still, it has what I was looking for.

I find it odd how people pretty much default to Ino/Shika, if he 'keeps it in Konoha' so to speak, or Ino/Choji if Shikamaru's brilliant mind isn't good enough to evade Temari's sexi- I mean sneakiness. By the time they became a team, they were more like siblings than friends.

As for InoSasu...How the hell would that work? I hate to admit it, but there is more chance of SakuSasu than InoSasu, and the chances of duck ass and pinky hooking up is zilch unless Naruto croaks bringing the teme back. Even then, it would have to be by Naruto's final request that Sakura would even consider Sasuke as anything more than someone to stab to death with poisoned kunai.

The bear trap I was talking about is the one from 'Medium Raw - Night of the Wolf.' The murderer actually forged a wolf-like armor and mounted a customized bear trap on the helmet to become the wolf's jaws. That thing was crazy. Four inch long steel 'fangs' that snapped shut almost instantly with enough force to chomp through bone with ease. That sums up Sasuke's affectionate side any day. So does, "hn."

And another thing! How the hell do people come up with GaaHina? I know it is better than KibaHina, but really? I have plans for the busty Hyūga princess...

**Sky Zephyrus:** I figured you would like the NaruSaku time. Pretty much every NaruSaku fic I read, the two of them have hot and heavy dates even back in their early genin days. I decided to model their date after the whole 'festival date between friends-who-are-sort-of-more-than-friends' thing you see in manga all the time, making it a bit more in tune with younger kids and a lighter feel. Also, they are still only friends at this point. Sakura will be more romantically aggressive in Part II. Of course, Naruto is still a hyper dense moron when it comes to anything other than ninjutsu, especially girls, so it will be kind of slow going.

And hell yes, Sakura was jealous! Her eyes are green for a reason!

**DarkLordK:** I agree that Jiraiya was allowed to run a little too rampant. I mean, he was in a village full of ninja and nobody bothered to stop him from peeking? And with said ninja around, at least one being an admittedly open pervert who enjoys reading smut in public, I find it highly unlikely that there would be no guards, genjutsu or high fences around the hot springs. As for him training Naruto... Yeah, he's still as lazy as a Nara and as perverted as a...Ero-sennin. Yeah, Ero-sennin describes him perfectly. He isn't the toad sage, he is the sage of perversion!

Sadly, Yue won't 'get any' til part II. Of course, she gets it HOT and HEAVY when she does. Ino is a naughty girl in this fic...

**thedarkpokemaster:** With practice, and a heck of a lot of Shounen manga, anyone can become good at writing a fight scene. I just happen to have a background in martial arts that gives me a slight edge. That and I've always had an imagination that runs at warp speed. You haven't seen anything yet. Wait until Part II. There are some great fight scenes I have planned.

**SuperNeos2:** Yeah, I decided to start their relationship a little early, but keep it light. Sadly, Sakura still likes Sasuke. Of course, Sasuke himself will take care of that himself later.

As for Yue's unsealed power, that will be seen later during Sasuke's betrayal. Let's just say that Sasuke isn't going to be able to brood and stomp his way around Orochimaru's lair like he did in canon. Yue is going to stomp his ass!

**LPN:** Maybe, maybe not. It all depends on talent. There **will be** some heavy make out sessions in Part II. By the way, I hope nobody gets bothered by the concept of a half demon biting their mate's shoulder to mark them.

As for Kyūbi's Kit...Maybe. I think I might be able to write a lesbian lemon, but I wouldn't count on it. I'd have to experiment a little. If I am any good at it, maybe this fic will also receive two lemons, one for NaruSaku, one for YueIno?. Don't expect anything major though. At the very least, there will be mentions of loud screaming, mostly coming from Naruto and Sakura's place.

**Mangaka Shuzen:** Uh, Jōnin and ANBU are two separate ranks. She is a tokubetsu jōnin, meaning special jōnin. It is a title given to ninja with centralized skills, like specializing in ninjutsu or fūinjutsu. Yue focuses on taijutsu and sucks worse than Naruto when it comes to genjutsu. Heck, even Lee has more genjutsu skill than Yue. Truth is, Yue's genjutsu skill is measured in negatives, a sad -2. Then again, I never really saw a use for genjutsu. It never works in canon and results in the user getting caught in their own illusion or rendered useless by pregnancy. (Sorry Kurenai, but its true) The only genjutsu that ever do any good are Tsukuyomi and Izanagi, which are readily usable during combat.

Now about her arrogance. Yue takes pride in being something more than human, but more than that, her nature as a hanyō makes her very rash and cocky. She also has no regard for her own life due to past events as well as her high healing rate. As she stated, she doesn't think she should be alive anymore because of what she is and what she did to land in prison. Plain and simple, Yue doesn't think she's all that, she just doesn't have to worry about killing herself because she believes nobody cares if she lives or dies.

As for Jiraiya being a pervert, he was like that in Part I, so he is like that in this fic's Part I. Besides, all evidence points to him being a pervert.

**Starxwind:** From the very beginning, I decided that Yue was around the power level of an ANBU at her peak during Part I, meaning that she is strong. I already stated why she isn't overpowered. She is also reckless, so she will sometimes jump into things that are too dangerous for her. Besides, her power is nothing compared to many other people's strength later. In Part II, Naruto and Sakura could defeat her. Sasuke can also match her, but only after he eats his Orochimaru bits.

To end it all, Yue has the experience behind her power that the others lack. It doesn't matter how strong you are, a trained professional could take you down with relative ease, especially when they can breath fire, control lightning and create perfect copies of themselves.

And who said that Naruto would be Hokage in the sequel? There is lots of red tape (a few idiot civilians), two kids to raise, missions and ramen in the way. And while Naruto is a jutsu sponge, he is extremely slow on the uptake with everything else (go ask Jiraiya. Naruto didn't take to the pervert training or woman training), especially mannerisms. He is almost finished his training when _that event_ happens and ruins everything.

**Rocketshipping fan:** Remember in the anime and manga what happened when Orochimaru attacked Sakura and Sasuke in the forest of death? Sakura was a hair's breath away from losing her mind to the fear. Since Orochimaru openly admits that Itachi is far stronger than him, and Kisame is there too, the KI caused Sakura to pass out. Quite simply, their presence was so strong that Sakura fainted to save her sanity. Yue even mentioned that she had to check up on Sakura and then revive her.

**And here you go, nameless reviewer. A new chapter.**

**Yue's Question Office**

Yue: Yue here~ I've got duck ass to my left and- (looks at Sasuke) Um, would you mind putting on a shirt? Maybe some not-so-torn up pants too?

Sasuke: I would, but that dumbass over there decided to sic a ton of fan girls on me and some emo vampire wannabe a few chapters ago! (points to said 'dumbass')

Yue: Nice knowing you Sasuke! You will be missed! (stays quiet for a moment) I'm done missing you already~

Sasuke: Huh?

Anko, in Excele's throne: Why hello there. Give me a moment to finish this dango, then I'll have a senbon to throw into those precious eyes of yours.

Tayuya, on the throne's arm: Hello to you too, emo fucktard. Want to hear a new song of mine? My Doki just love it.

Sasuke: What the-Where is that lousy excuse for a writer?

Anko: He's busy writing this fic's later chapters and eating ramen. Don't you already know that, Sasuke-chan?

Sasuke: Hn. He's still a hack. He hasn't shown the glory of my mighty battles nearly enough. And, I'm a man and the last Uchiha, so you will only address me as Sasuke-sama! I demand it!

Anko, smiling far too sweetly: I don't take orders from assholes. And you won't be a man for much longer, Sasuke-chan.

Tayuya: Not like there's much to cut off anyways.

Anko drags Sasuke out of the room with wires, spinning a kunai on her finger the whole way.

Yue: Wow, he's in for it. (starts daydreaming of turning Sasuke into a girl, then gets physically ill and depressed at the image) That almost made me go straight. Ugh... (throws up again)

Tayuya: We lost her already. Hey Yue! There's a question for ya! Answer it and I'll give you this pic of Ino in a string bikini.

Yue, nose bleeding and eyes flashing (Jiraiya mode): Give me the pic-er, question!

**Sky Zephyrus asks:** Yue-nee-chan, can I ask you something? Do you think Sakura is a tsundere?

Yue, still in Jiraiya mode: Ehehehe. Yue-nee-chan~ Will Ino call me that when I... (purrs throatily as she claws the table)

Tayuya: Lost her again! Is she going into heat or something? (flashes picture of bikini Ino)

Yue: Yes! I think Sakura is a tsundere! Now give me that picture!

Tayuya throws the picture. Yue pounces on it and rushes into the corner.

Ino (walks in and stands before the desk): What happened here? I came here to get a mission for Team 10, only to find it changed up like this.

Tayuya: Excele stole it and is using it for Yue's question period.

Ino: Hmm. (staring at Yue)

Tayuya: Yeah, Sakura is the definition of tsundere, as Yue said before going into Yuri-neko mode. Don't know which movie it is, but Sakura gets all pissed off when another girl gets all hot and bothered around Naruto. Afterwards, she still hits him and yells at him. Textbook tsundere. She is tsundere in this fic too. And you, blondie, stop undressing Yue with your eyes! If you want to fuck her senseless, take her to a room and do her til she can't think right!

Ino, blushing: W-w-w-what? I-I-I wasn't u-undressing her with me e-eyes! A-a-a-and I d-d-don't want to-to... (blushes really hard as she starts imagining her and Yue together)

Tayuya: Oh look, another tsundere. Want this picture of Yue wearing a large t-shirt on a hot day? Looks like she just got out of the shower too, you can see the water in her hair. I'm also pretty sure that she is only wearing that t-shirt too.

Ino, completely red: I AM NOT TSUNDERE AND I DON'T LIKE GIRLS! (snatches the picture, pockets it, then runs out of the office)

Tayuya: Yeah, yeah. Real convincing. I think I should start selling these pictures. I could make a fucking killing if I sold them.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Cursed Bet

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

Tsunade had to admit that she was slightly worried. The seal on her forehead restricted how much chakra she could use at any given time. Add to it that, despite her looks, Tsunade was an elderly woman and her prime had passed a while ago. Yue, on the other hand, was young and a half demon, giving her much more potential than any average shinobi her age. Even without training, Yue would be a tough opponent to fight. The gate and her anger just made it more dangerous.

Yue tore forward with a clawed hand held back, a faint aura around them. She swiped at Tsunade, who stepped back and watched a few strands of hair float before her face before the wind picked them up. Tsunade jabbed her finger at Yue's chest to throw her away, but the girl's enhanced speed allowed her to barely twist around and out of the way of the blow.

Yue swung a kick at Tsunade's side, which was blocked. Yue smirked, then started copying Sasuke by delivering a punch to Tsunade's shoulder while her leg was still pinned. When that was hand caught, Yue used her captured limbs as posts and landed a surprise kick to Tsunade's head. Tsunade threw the girl away, who corrected her wild flight by performing a handspring and then skid back, using chakra to slow her slide.

Tsunade placed a hand where the girl's foot had struck her and faintly smiled. While she wanted nothing to do with Konoha anymore, she couldn't help but feel proud that their ninja were still as strong as ever. Of course, Tsunade was holding back a lot, but it was difficult for people to match her even when she was holding back. "A finger isn't enough to stop you, so I'll use the whole fist to end this," Tsunade stated as she clenched her hand into a fist, "make sure to block it."

Tsunade went on the offensive, aiming to hit the girl and stop her. The slug Sannin saw the hand seals, but assumed that it was a kawarimi.

"**Raiton: Hiraishin!"**

Tsunade stopped and jumped back as lightning crackled around the girl's body. "Damn. Raiton, katon, Hachimon, demon blood and great taijutsu. Konoha really knows how to breed them," Tsunade praised, "I guess that means Konaha's ninjutsu families are still at their peak, huh?"

Yue's eye brows scrunched up in confusion. "My mother was from Suna and I don't have any clues about my father other than him being human and an ANBU in Konoha. I probably got everything from my mother, so Konoha only trained me, not bred me."

Tsunade's eye brow rose. "So you don't know... Well, that makes this easier. I don't have to worry about _those_ now."

"Those?" Yue asked, then blinked when Tsunade became a stick. "Dammit! Genjutsu!" Yue shouted as she wheeled around, but it was too late. Tsunade backhanded the hanyō away to skid across the ground and over the crack to rest at the pink haired girl's feet. The moment she stopped, Yue lifted herself up and winced in a combination of the blow and her muscles taking damage from the Shōmon. She closed it with a jolt of chakra.

"If I remember correctly, you are sixteen now, so defending a hopeless dream is too childish for you now. Fulfil your own obtainable dream of becoming ANBU and leave the loud mouthed brat behind. Those who chase Hokage die young or die as fools," Tsunade lectured as she stared the girl down.

Naruto rushed forward again, an even rougher rasengan spinning in his hand. This time, Tsunade deflected him into the crack in the ground. "You never learn, do you?" Tsunade asked.

Naruto pulled himself up. "Three days."

"What was that, boy?" Tsunade asked.

"In three days, I'll master this jutsu," Naruto promised as he completely pulled himself out of the crack.

Tsunade chuckled a bit. "Don't make promises you can't hope to keep."

"I always keep my promises and I never back down. That's my nindo," Naruto stated.

"Well then, let's make it a bit more interesting then," Tsunade tugged on her necklace, "I'll give you a week to master the Rasengan. Do it and this necklace is yours."

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune shouted.

"I don't need that old, ugly piece of junk," Naruto deadpanned.

Jiraiya sighed. "Naruto, that necklace belonged to the Shodai Hokage. It is made from rare crystals and is worth three mountains."

Naruto thought of how much ramen he could buy and nodded. "Alright, deal!"

"Broke brat," Jiraiya muttered.

"And whose fault is that?" Yue hissed, half in pain and half in anger.

"Of course," Tsunade said as she hefted a very familiar frog wallet, "losing means all this money is mine."

"Gama-chan! Again? Sannin are dirty!" Naruto wailed.

Shizune stepped closer to her master. "Tsunade-sama. That necklace is-"

"This is a sure bet," Tsunade cut in, "no way he can ever master it. Ever. Let's go." She started walking away.

"Hey Tsunade!" Jiraiya called, "let's go have a drink! It's been a very long time!" He glanced over to Naruto, Sakura, Shizune and Yue. "You four go find a hotel to rest for a while."

Shizune decided to leave this to Jiraiya since she was powerless in this situation. "Yes," she said quietly. Sakura helped Yue onto her feet and kept the girl steady as the four made their way to a hotel for the night.

_[An outdoor bar, later]_

"Hard to believe you became even more beautiful since I last saw you," Jiraiya drunkenly slurred.

"Same old Jiraiya. You know that I'll date anyone before I would ever date you," Tsunade prodded.

"Not interested anyways," Jiraiya shot back, "I prefer young women over old ladies."

"What was that?" Tsunade shot back with the promise of death in her tone.

"Nothing," Jiraiya muttered. A few moments later, he smirked. "Worried?"

"About what?" Tsunade asked, wondering where that came from.

"Naruto," Jiraiya stated. Tsunade scowled and shook her head lightly. "Acting like a child in front of a child. We both know that he can't master the rasengan in a week, even if it is the only jutsu he practices, "Jiraiya said, "that's the most one-sided bet you've ever made."

"Whatever." Tsunade was getting tired of this topic and wished Jiraiya would either go into perverted territory or pass out.

"Why are you being reckless all of a sudden?" Jiraiya asked.

"I'm never reckless," Tsunade muttered.

Jiraiya chuckled to himself. "Got a hot date with Orochimaru, eh?"

Tsunade felt a shiver go up her spine. She forgot that Jiraiya could read her like a book, most of the time.

"From the moment I saw the strain in Shizune's face, I knew that you met up with our old friend. I don't know what he offered you, but I wouldn't jump on it if I were you," Jiraiya warned. He took a sip of his sake. "Let me tell you this. All the past Hokage made certain that Konoha lived a life of safety and peace in spite of the wars they had to fight. They placed the lives of thousands before their own, all for the sake of their dreams," Jiraiya explained, "you do something to betray Konoha, in anyway, and I'll kill you with my own hands. If I can't do it, I know of a number of ninja that would happily hunt you down for the sake of the Leaf, two of which you recently met and fought."

Tsunade snorted, not caring since it didn't involve her. Besides, those two brats couldn't defeat her.

"Only a murderer could calmly look upon the dead around them," Jiraiya stated, "you still feel pain at loss, right?" When Tsunade remained silent, he went on. "I know you care about our village and those within it. Remember when you-"

"Shut up!" Tsunade snapped, "you are starting to sound like an old man, always lecturing."

Jiraiya chose to not tell her that he was an old man. Would have been fun though.

"Why'd you bring him?" Tsunade asked.

"Scary similarity, ne?" he asked with a smirk.

Tsunade remembered her little brother and how similar Naruto was to him. Their dreams, determination, even their appearances were similar.

_[Hotel]_

"I've got one week to master the...uh, ran-something!" Naruto shouted to the moon.

Creak...

Naruto turned to see that black haired woman who had been following Tsunade around. What was her name again? ...Oh yeah, Shizune!

"Sorry if I disturbed you, Naruto-kun, but we need to talk for a moment," the woman said ominously.

"Uh, sure. I need to wake up early to train, but I can stay up for a few more minutes," Naruto said, wondering what she wanted.

"About Tsunade-sama, and that necklace. I don't want you to misunderstand," Shizune started.

"I don't really care about that oba-san right now," Naruto muttered angrily.

"You don't know anything about Tsunade-sama! Don't talk about her that way!" Shizune snapped back. This brought on a few moments of silence. "Sorry for yelling like that, but she's been different since...that day..."

"What day? What happened?" Naruto asked.

"Her hopes, dreams and love were all swept away in one fell swoop," Shizune stated. "That necklace...It's as important to Tsunade-sama as her own life, that's why she would never bet it."

"I didn't know that! She made the bet, not me!" Naruto shouted, truly worried now.

"T-that necklace. Nobody but Tsunade-sama can have it. It's cursed and only recognizes Tsunade-sama as its bearer," Shizune looked away, "everyone else who has worn it since she received it has died." She told the stories of Tsunade's brother, Nawaki and Dan, Shizune's uncle and a man Tsunade had loved. Both had died horrible deaths after receiving the necklace from Tsunade, the necklace seeming to taunt her each time by being the only thing to come out unscathed and unbloodied. To make matters worse, Dan's death resulted in Tsunade's extreme fear of blood.

"Can you understand her now?" Shizune asked after the story, "she has been struggling since then."

Click.

Shizune turned to see him in the open doorway. "Naruto-kun?"

"I have to go train," Naruto said to nobody in particular before he left.

_[A week later]_

Naruto spent the whole time training, even to the point where he injured himself and wore his chakra reserves almost to their emergency limits when he was found on the sixth night. Yue seemed to drop off the map, coming around less than Naruto himself. Had she not sent a cat with a message to Sakura each day, one would think she had been killed. Tsunade seemed to spend the week in a daze, her mind a boiling mix of the events since Orochimaru reappeared before her. She actually won forty thousand ryo and didn't even notice, not even after she lost it and twenty thousand other ryo.

On the final day, Naruto was recuperating from his self inflicted injuries. Jiraiya was found knocked out from a poison Tsunade had slipped into his drink from the night before. Shizune was knocked out in the same room as Naruto because she tried to stop her master. Sakura was peacefully sleeping in her room and Yue was wherever she was.

_[Near the meeting spot]_

"I don't want anything to interfere with the exchange," Orochimaru hissed.

"What do you have in mind?" Kabuto asked.

Orochimaru's lips twisted into a smirk.."That apprentice of Tsunade's. Maybe it is time that she met a...doctor."

Kabuto drew a kunai and switched routes, going towards Tanzaku's residential blocks while Orochimaru continued onward.

_[Hotel]_

"Oi! Wake up!" A voice called out to Shizune.

The medic realized that it was Naruto who was calling to her and she slowly got up. She remembered how Tsunade said he would be asleep for at least a day and started to panic. "What day is it?"

"M-Monday. Why?" Naruto asked, scared at the woman's outburst. When she stared at him for a few moments, he couldn't help but ask, "what's wrong?"

"You're completely recovered?" Shizune asked.

"Heh heh! No matter what injury I suffer or how hard I push myself, it only takes a good night of sleep for me to recover!" Naruto shouted happily. Shizune remembered that Naruto was the jinchūriki for the Kyūbi no Yōko, meaning that it was probably responsible for his high healing factor. The boy was a mere human, but he was closer to being a thick blooded hanyō with the fox in him. She tried to move, but the blow Tsunade had delivered last night when Shizune tried to stop her still hurt.

"Where's the Oba-san?" Naruto asked, "today's the day I show her I mastered the jutsu. Course, I got to finish training first..."

That made Shizune remember that this was the day Tsunade was to answer Orochimaru. She went over and opened the window to leave. "Stay in here Naruto-kun!" she called back, only to hear a dull thud from outside.

"What was that?" Naruto asked as his opened the window further, allowing him to see too.

Jiraiya was slumped against the wall, looking like a few miles of rough road. "Shizune..."

A few moments later, the three were on the small roof next to the window while Jiraiya leaned back against the wall. "Tsunade...She's the last person I'd expect to put a homemade drug into my drink," Jiraiya said, "my body is numb and my chakra flow is messed up. Judging by how it has slowly gotten better, I think it will be gone in a few hours."

"Some Sannin you are! She got you with the three things a ninja should be wary of!" Naruto shouted.

Jiraiya grabbed his head. "And I got a hangover too, so shut up!" He glanced over at Shizune. "In her current state, she's still a prodigy medic. The poison was completely undetectable and it was only meant to slow or stop me, not kill." He looked at Naruto. "Go tell the pink haired girl to lay low. And maybe find a way to contact that cat. We may need her."

From a nearby, shadowed alley way rooftop, Kabuto watched his current target, who had someone he couldn't fight nearby. He would either have to abandon the plan or find a way to take her out with no risk. It was then that he noticed Naruto was still there. _'Why are you still here, Naruto-kun?'_ He stepped back, deciding to report to Orochimaru rather than risk a hopeless battle. Most likely, Jiraiya and Naruto were here for Tsunade, just like him and Orochimaru.

"Shizune!" Jiraiya called out suddenly, "what did Orochimaru ask for when he came by? Tell us everything!"

Shizune looked down, hiding her eyes behind her hair. "I wanted to believe in Tsunade-sama, that she would do the right thing... But..." She got onto her feet, still shaky from her light injury. "Come! I'll explain on the way!"

"Hai!" Naruto and Jiraiya said as they got up and followed the woman.

_[Near the ruins of Tanzaku Castle]_

Orochimaru was within speaking distance of his 'healer.' He was still a little worried. "Your answer?"

"I will heal you, but you must not attack Konoha," Tsunade stated.

Orochimaru smirked. "Deal." His smirk got a little more twisted. _'Stupid woman. The moment you finish healing my arm, Konoha's end will begin!'_

Memories of Dan and Nawaki swam through Tsunade's mind as she walked up to Orochimaru, bringing tears to her eyes. Orochimaru held up his burnt left arm, feeling extreme pain in doing so.

Kabuto arrived on one of the wall's rooftops, looking down on the two ninja. He remembered how Orochimaru told him that the only way he could be stopped was if Kabuto killed Sasuke, which he had tried. Orochimaru had been right in saying that he and Kakashi were equal in strength. Kabuto had no hope of defeating Orochimaru. But, in his current state...

The two were close enough for the treatment now, so Tsunade readied her jutsu while Orochimaru held his injured arm up for the woman to heal. Her hands were filled with light and was about to combine that light with his arm when a kunai slammed into the ground between them, making both jump back. Both looked up to see Kabuto. The boy jumped down to the ground behind his teacher.

"To come this far, only to betray me. What were you-!" Orochimaru stopped, realizing that the one emitting KI was Tsunade, not Kabuto. "Tsunade!" He stepped back slightly. "So that is your answer, to kill me Hime?" He glanced back slightly. "Kabuto, I knew you were loyal to me."

"I was in the medical corps, so I can tell the difference between healing jutsu and those used to put the gravely injured down," Kabuto stated.

Orochimaru sighed. "Tsunade, I really meant it when I said I wouldn't touch Konoha. Same with reviving Nawaki and Dan." This, of course, was a lie. He would reunite her with the two, but she would be the one going to them.

Tsunade smiled slightly. "I'm no fool, Orochimaru. Us Sannin can read each other like books." She glared at the man. "The promise was a lie." She looked down. "I truly want to see them again, even one last time. Their smiles, their voices. When I felt it within my heart, the feeling of being able to see them again, I realized that I was a foolish idiot!" She started crying again. "Just because you brought up some old memories of them, I couldn't see anything but them. I would do anything to just hold them again, but it is an impossible dream. It took a brat to wake me up, to remind me of their spirit, of their dreams. They put their lives on the line for that dream, and the fulfilment of that dream became my own." She paused, then continued. "All things whither and become dust, your own words," she looked at the man, crying, "but feelings are eternal, especially my feelings for those two."

"No deal, huh?" Orochimaru hissed, "guess I'll have to force you to do it."

Tsunade wiped her eyes, then vanished. The two Oto-nin looked up to see Tsunade above them, leg raised to reduce Orochimaru to dust. The two dodged, just as Tsunade destroyed much of the area and walls.

"Bitter medicine. I hate it, but it works best," Orochimaru said, "Kabuto, we're fighting her!"

"Come here, Orochimaru!" Tsunade shouted.

"Hmm, I've never fought her before," Orochimaru mused to himself.

"But I'm the one who will be doing most of the fighting," Kabuto muttered.

Tsunade charged at them, throwing her jacket off as she moved forward. "Bastards! This place will be your grave!" She punched the wall, decimating it.

"One hit and you meet Shinigami," Orochimaru warned.

"You don't have to tell me something so obvious," Kabuto replied as the wall crumbled. "This area is one big bottleneck."

"Change locations then," Orochimaru lightly commanded.

"That would be for the best. Not just the apprentice, but he might interfere as well," Kabuto stated.

Orochimaru hissed slightly, surprised. "That idiot is still here?" 

"Yes," Kabuto reported.

Realizing the trouble that might be coming his way, Orochimaru ordered Kabuto to follow him as he led the way to a more appropriate location. Tsunade followed them.

_[A few minutes later]_

"I take it she said no to the deal," Jiraiya muttered as the three surveyed the damage.

Shizune was happy that Tsunade declined Orochimaru's offer, but where was she? Shizune noticed Tsunade's pig sniffing at the woman's discarded coat. "Tonton, lead us to Tsunade-sama!" The pig took off, leading the three ninja forward.

_[Barren Area]_

Tsunade had been doing her best to make Kabuto one with Mother Earth, but he proved a little too quick for her to land a solid blow.

"Tsunade hasn't seen proper combat and it's showing, use that now," Orochimaru suggested.

Kabuto reached into his pouch and pulled out a pill, which Tsunade realized was a soldier pill. "I'm not a taijutsu type shinobi, but this should even the odds slightly," he said after swallowing the pill. After it took effect, he flashed through some seals and the glow of chakra coated his hands. **"Chakra scalpel,"** he muttered before vanishing. His hand burst out of the ground a moment later, aiming to cut Tsunade's tendons. She dodged it and drove her fist into the ground, trying to hit the boy, but he had already jumped out of the ground and away from her. He moved through the shadows of the debris and struck her arm and leg.

"Your biceps and thigh muscles have been cut, your power has been cut down," Kabuto informed the woman like a 'good' doctor.

"Why not use the chakra scalpel to cut my arteries?" Tsunade asked. That's what she would have done.

"I could do that, but it is too difficult to form such a long blade and perform such precise cuts in the heat of battle," Kabuto stated, "but your neck, that's easy to cut!"

Instead of landing a blow to her neck, he hit her chest instead. He quickly lengthened the blade, hoping to cut her.

Tsunade started coughing. "Y-you got my lungs," she gasped. She realized that the boy was extremely talented.

"Aiming for the neck would be fatal, so I aimed for something else," Kabuto said as he adjusted his glasses, "you shouldn't be able to move properly."

Without warning, Tsunade was up and smashed Kabuto in the base of his skull. Kabuto figured that the fat on her chest was far too thick for the simple strike he delivered. She was also not a normal person, since a normal person would have been immobilized by that blow. _'Forget the chakra scalpel, I'll just slice her tendons with a kunai,'_ Kabuto thought as he started to get up. That's when he noticed his body wasn't working properly. For instance, moving his hand moved his leg. Could it be?

Tsunade punched at Kabuto's head, scoring a grazing hit. It was then that he realized she had done something to him when she hit him, something not related to his muscles, but his nervous system.

"Figured it out? When I hit you before, I sent chakra, in the form of electricity, into your body. You can guess what it's doing to you," Tsunade said.

_'Even with years of inactivity, she is still a Sannin,'_ Kabuto thought as he started trying to think a way out of this one.

Tsunade healed herself in spite of how much chakra it would cost.

_'Right hand, left leg. Left foot, right shoulder,'_ Kabuto thought as he tried some rapid experimenting. _'Annoying, but I now have about 80% of my full mobility,'_ Kabuto thought. "Don't think such a technique will stop me!" Kabuto shouted as he drew a kunai and stood up.

_'H-he figured out how to move?'_ Tsunade thought in shock, _'that's not normal by any means!'_

"Hemophobia, I'll show you lots of your own!" Kabuto shouted as he charged the woman.

POOF!

Kabuto backed off as the smoke dissipated, revealing Naruto, Jiraiya, Tsunade and Tonton.

"So we meet again, Jiraiya," Orochimaru greeted.

"Same insane eyes as ever. You'll never change," Jiraiya said with a wide grin.

"Naruto-kun," Kabuto quietly said, knowing how Naruto would react.

"K-Kabuto-san! Why are you here?" Naruto shouted, confused.

**A/N~**

Figured this was as good a place as any to stop. These last two chapters have been slow and painful. Some deviation is headed your way, such as Orochimaru having an arm to use.

Also, I'm going to be releasing the prologue and first chapter of 'The Greatest' later today. Main difference: Naruto doesn't have a crush on Sakura anymore. He will later, but he hooks up with his childhood friend (an OC) first before he gets the interest of Sakura and Ino in Part II.

**Differences between the two Yues-**

Konoha's Two Demon's Yue: Taijutsu type with medium level ninjutsu. Speed and power type. Full name is Kazenko Yue. Age 15-16 in Part I. A straight up berserker in terms of combat style.

Necessary Darkness' Yue: Ninjutsu type with weak taijutsu. Technical type. Full name is Kuroishi Yue. Age 11 in Part I. Strongest attack: near fatal cuteness, (censored to prevent spoilers) For lack of a better term, she's a black mage from Final Fantasy.

Both are nekomata hanyō with thick demon blood. Both have high speed healing, greater strength, speed, stamina and chakra reserves than average shinobi. Both have cat ears and a tail. Both also possess a scar under their hair line that has altered the color in a part of their bangs.

While they do heal like Jinchūriki, they doesn't heal flawlessly. Scars are left on both Yues' bodies from major wounds and some wounds take more time to heal than others.

**Kazeneko Yue's weaknesses-**

**Emotional:** Yue has a host of psychological conditions that are classically seen in victims. The following list is what she suffers from.

Self-blame: Despite all circumstances, Yue blames herself for ever misdeed that she has even a passing involvement to.

Victim Blaming: As stated above, Yue blames herself for everything, even her own abuse. She views it as her fault, her being born as a half demon, that brought on the abuse in the first place. This conflicts greatly with the little self confidence she does have, in which she sees her race as a benefit to herself and others. This conflict just wears her down slowly, making her emotional stability weaker each day.

Subjugation: Yue suffers all the classical signs of an emotional abuse victim. She honestly believes that she needs to be controlled by someone due to her 'being of a much lower status than human.' The incident that led to her jailing reinforced this.

Defilement: Due to her mistreatment at the hands of multiple sources, Yue has adopted the concept that she is an evil being that is tainted to her core.

Resignation: How Yue manages to not drive a kunai through her throat is beyond anyone, even me. Her will is shattered, possibly beyond repair. The depression that she suffers is untreated, due to it not being detected and the fact that her body's defences will probably break the medication down before it starts to work. She hides the depression under a false smile and goofy behavior. When mind walked, there was no traces of her having a goal for the future, or even any interest in it at all. Multiple natural and artificial memory blocks prevent free exploration of her mind.

-From the report of Yamanaka Santa.

**Physical:** Yue has suffered an extreme case of child neglect and psychological abuse. This resulted in her suffering from lack of growth and has also limited the effects puberty has had on her thus far. Due to her rapid healing, it is highly likely that she also suffered physical abuse with no traces remaining.

**Personality:** Yue suffers from BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder), HPD (Histrionic Personality Disorder) Self-defeating personality disorder and depressive personality disorder.

_**!My reasons for delay!**_

First and fore most, I was worried about how people were going to take the story. So many complaints rolled in, mostly about Yue's power, that I literally couldn't write. I would open the latest chapter and when I went to write, I would get tremors in my hands and headaches. I attribute the headaches to writing day in, day out for a total of three weeks. The tremors were purely worry based. I knew what I wanted to write, but something kept wondering if other people would like it, or hate it. One day, I had an epiphany in the form of everyone's most hated Naruto character, except for those who love SasukeXanybody.

Sasuke appeared in my mind and said, "why the fuck do you care what they think? Wasn't this story originally for you, one of the pickiest dobes on this site? You are LETTING them read it. If they don't like it, stop writing it and let them miss out on your work." He then went on to trying to convince me to write about his fights more, to make him stronger, but I had Yue drag him away and kick his ass for calling me and all the other people on this site dobes.

He's right, I am very picky about what I read. First sign of ShikaIno, SasuIno or ChoIno and I'm gone like a lightning bolt. SasuSaku is avoided like the plague. Truth be told, I have very few stories that I read because of my preferences. When I look for a story, it is normally very high quality and well done and I try for that in my own stories. If I, a person with high standards, approve of my stories, then most other people should too. And it was written for my enjoyment in the first place.

Now, back to me. Some good news as to my absence is the shiny new, duo core processor computer I'm currently sitting in front of, my early Christmas gift from a friend. It isn't without an issue to two, but those seem to be related to my anti-viral program being a computer crashing, resource hog when it concerns an executable file over a gig in size. Anyways, I had to transfer my data from my old machine (around 100 GB of files) and I'm still sifting through them. First thing to be moved was my stories and resource material so I could continue working on them.

And most recently, since Wednesday, I have been partially crippled. Don't worry, it's temporary and doesn't affect my hands. I dropped a heavy bowl on the ground and it shattered, sending a sizable chunk sailing straight into my right foot. I bled all over the kitchen and dining room, changing the rooms to some Saw-like murder scene, and spent the next forty minutes bleeding at a rapid rate. I was using crutches until Friday and I am now sort of walking around again.

Now for the bad news. I can't lift one of my toes anymore and I have a slight numbness between my index and middle toe, all signs of nerve damage. I may have nicked the tendon a bit too, but it is far too late to go to the hospital now.

Need some help finding a fic I like.

I lost a bookmark file that contained a link to a fic I really liked. In the beginning, Naruto and Sakura start making out and Sakura accidentally moans Sasuke's name, making Naruto freak out. He winds up leaving on another training journey and merges with the female Kyūbi. When he returns, his pheromones, a result of fusing with Kyūbi, causes all the women gathered to really enjoy themselves (nudge nudge) and the Inuzuka wind up viewing Naruto as the Alpha male of Konoha, with Kiba calling the blond 'Naruto-sama' and his Tsume and Hana practically going into heat when he's around.

Naruto winds up meeting Sakura and treats her like a stranger, going so far as to call her 'Haruno-san,' which devastates her. Naruto gives her a second chance, which Kyūbi calls a mistake. Naruto and Ino draw closer due to Kyūbi showing her some of Naruto's childhood. Ino invites him to her place and she dresses up in her Part I (or maybe it was Part II) clothes for him despite them being too small and making her look like a slut. She remembers how Naruto said he enjoyed her bonking him over the head, so she does so while asking him why he didn't write her or anything.

Naruto also draws closer to Hinata, who tries to visit him after something bad happens. She is literally standing outside while Kyūbi gives Naruto a little bit of...encouragement in his mind. Did I forget to mention that Naruto wants to marry Kyūbi, to have kids with her if he ever found a way to release her and live? That's how bad Sakura's actions were. He truly believed that no woman would want him, so Kyūbi showed him that it wasn't true. He also proposed to her, but she refused because it would have been odd for him to date himself.

**Yue's Question period-**

Kuroishi Yue (reading the list on Yue's mental/emotional issues): You are seriously fucked up. Look at all those issues you got!

Yue: Hey! I'm good at hiding it!

Kuroishi Yue: Doesn't change the fact that you belong in a straight jacket and a padded cell.

Yue: Grrr! You-!

Kuroishi Yue: Silence! I will not listen to your pathetic dribble! It's bad enough I need to listen to humans and their useless noise. When my time comes, I'll have someone else do this stupid thing, if it is done at all. Maybe that blonde lolicon slave of mine can do it without screwing up. She'll do anything if I give her a decent enough reward, one befitting a pervert who loves little girls like me. Maybe me kissing her cheek would be enough to motivate such a depraved pervert...

Yue: Hey! Don't treat Ino like that!

Kuroishi Yue: I'll treat the pervert any way I want. Now, let's see here. Hmm? Nya ha ha! Nobody bothered asking you anything!

Yue: What? B-But this is my last one! (starts to tear up)

Kuroishi Yue: They don't care what happens to you anymore. This is why humans are so low. Unless it benefits them in some way, they don't care. If you did something like save them from death, then they would act like they accepted you, but they would still hate you under all that. Humans are incapable of change.

Yue, now crying: You're wrong! People, humans can change! (runs away)

Kuroishi Yue: Nya ha ha ha! They made her cry! I can't believe she's the original. She's so pathetic, relying on humans. Nothing but traitors and liars. Only Jinchūriki, Konan and Tayuya can be trusted because they are special humans. They know the pain of being different, being something that people fear. (leaves the office)


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Deadly battle

**Disclaimer: I'm here to post fanfics, read fanfics and eat ramen. I'm all outta ramen to eat and new fanfics to read. Er, I also don't own Naruto.**

"So you know him," Jiraiya said.

"Out of the way!" Tsunade shouted as she plowed past Jiraiya, knocking him over. Jiraiya tried to get up to stop her, but the poison was still affecting him. Kabuto saw her coming as used his kunai to cut his arm, raining blood all over the woman. It had the desired effect, stopping Tsunade completely.

"So your jutsu has a time limit," Kabuto said as he realized he had full, proper control of his body again. _'Two Sannin are far too dangerous, even for me.'_ He punched Tsunade away. No longer seeing her as a threat.

Naruto was released from his shock when Shizune caught Tsunade. "What's going on? Why are you fighting Tsunade?"

"So dense, that's why you'll never be a match for Sasuke-kun," Kabuto stated venomously.

Jiraiya frowned. "Look at his forehead protector. He's an Oto-nin."

Kabuto chuckled. "I'm Orochimaru-sama's spy in Konoha."

"T-this is all a joke, right?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto-kun, I have come to a conclusion after examining all your data: unlike Sasuke-kun, or even the kunoichi of your team, you hold no promise as a shinobi," Kabuto said. Naruto glared at the traitor he had considered a friend. "Even with such a glare, you are nothing more than an genin that never should have been," Kabuto said, "without that monster, you would be nothing at all. With the Sannin here, you are nothing more than a speck of dust. Try something and I'll kill you without even realizing it."

Naruto charged forward, ignoring Jiraiya. He knew he had a slight advantage due to Kabuto's wounded arm. Naruto created three clones, knowing that more would be a waste. He focused his attacks on Kabuto's weak side, hoping to defeat the older boy.

Just before the group of Narutos could strike, blood splashed into their eyes. With the attackers blinded, Kabuto grabbed a clone and threw it at Naruto, completely destroying the attack. Shizune caught Naruto and spat a pair of poisoned needles at Kabuto, knowing he was at his worst now.

Kabuto panicked and tried to move out of the way. When he realized he couldn't dodge the needles, he bounced them off his forehead protector. During Shizune's moment of hesitation, he jumped back to Orochimaru's side and took a pill to stop the bleeding.

"So much blood," Orochimaru noted. He started to remove the bandages on his left arm, feeling that he would soon need his contract seal.

"Shizune, take care of the glasses, I'll handle Orochimaru," Jiraiya ordered. "Of course, an antidote for this poison would be so much better."

"Tsunade-sama would have to make the antidote. Besides, it seems to be a short term poison. It should run its course in a few hours," Shizune said.

"No helping it then, I'll just have to wing it," Jiraiya said humorlessly "Tsunade, heal yourself."

"What should I do?" Naruto asked.

"Nothing. Like glasses said, you are too weak right now. Orochimaru is a Sannin like me and Tsunade. That kid seems to be about as strong as Kakashi." Jiraiya didn't like saying it, but it was true. If that damn cat was here, Shizune could focus on healing while Yue took on Kabuto. As much as he hated saying it, that cat was strong, stronger than some (female) ANBU he knew. As to why she was stuck as a tokubetsu jōnin, well, Jiraiya had an idea as to why she couldn't go any further. Probably the same reason the cat's sensei was branded a psychopath: the council.

"Kage-" Naruto started as he formed the cross seal.

"Stop it!" Jiraiya snapped, "you felt what happened last time. What makes you think doing that again would do anything different?"

Jiraiya and Orochimaru drew blood and performed their own respective versions of their summoning. Orochimaru summoned a massive, two headed snake. Jiraiya summoned...

"'Sup?" a small toad asked.

"Your stupidity and lack of talent knows no bounds, even to this day!" Orochimaru hissed from atop his serpent, "at least Tsunade helped you reach your 'full potential' with a little poison." He smirked. "Edo Tensei requires a body to revive a body, so maybe Tsunade finally picked you for something, other than being her punching bag!"

Jiraiya grit his teeth, hating that his weakness had already been discovered.

Naruto bit his thumb, remembering that he could also summon. He went through the seals and slammed his hand onto the ground, startling everyone present that he could use such a jutsu.

"The Kyūbi again. I should have gutted him with Kusanagi back at the forest. Since the Five Elements seal was undone, it must have been Jiraiya. Seals were the only thing he never messed up," Orochimaru muttered angrily.

"So Jiraiya already taught Naruto-kun that," Kabuto said. Even he couldn't summon without the assistance of a scroll.

"If he learns to control that power, he could become..." Orochimaru said.

Poof. An even smaller toad than Jiraiya's appeared.

"Utterly useless, just like his master," Orochimaru groaned as he felt embarrassment at being afraid for a moment.

"Naruto-kun never was talented in anything, let alone ninjutsu," Kabuto chuckled.

The toads started talking with each other, mostly just goofing off and showing off how useless they were with talks of snacks and hiding.

"I'll feed Jiraiya to my pet, you handle the leftovers!" Orochimaru commanded as one of the serpent's heads rocketed down at his former teammate.

Kabuto jumped off the serpent. "I wanted to test my talents on a Sannin, but I guess I've had my fill for today."

One of the snake's heads hit the ground, blasting the area into ruin. Shizune emerged from the smoke cloud, carrying her master. Kabuto rushed at her, but his targets were knocked away by Naruto. A serpent head rushed out of the dust, mouth open to swallow Naruto whole. Jiraiya went take care of the snake, but Orochimaru came up from behind, intent on fighting Jiraiya. The perverted shinobi quickly went through seals and changed much of the area into a swamp.

_'Such a small swamp. It won't hold that bastard for too long. Damn Tsunade's long lasting poisons!'_ Jiraiya thought. "At least I caught one snake," he said as he watched his former teammate walk closer to him across the snake's back.

Shizune was fighting her own battle against Kabuto. She fired some needles from her arm mounted launchers, but the boy dodged around them and struck her in the stomach with a chakra scalpel. It didn't stop her next jutsu, a blast of poison gas released from her mouth. He dug into the ground, knowing a single breath would result in death. He burrowed under her and grabbed her ankles, damaging her tendons with his chakra scalpels.

"I! Won't! Be! Lunch! A second time!" Naruto shouted as he forced his way out of the snake's mouth. Once free, the snake decided to try crushing him beneath it, but only pinned Naruto's leg.

On the snake's back, Orochimaru rushed forward to take out his old teammate. Jiraiya went through the seals for his own original jutsu.

"**Hari Jizō!"** Jiraiya muttered as his hair became a fortress of needles.

Orochimaru used his own technique, stretching his neck to impossible lengths. Before getting to Jiraiya, he used a stretched leg to kick aside the needle barrier, then plunged his fangs into the man's neck.

"Even though we're a pair of handicapped old men, you still manage to be stronger than me," Jiraiya growled.

"Die already! That is something even you can't mess up!" Orochimaru hissed around his old teammate's neck.

Kabuto delivered a knockout blow in his battle, putting Shizune down for the next little while. A drop of Shizune's blood hit Tsunade's cheek, waking her up from her phobia driven nightmare. She saw a battered Naruto and Shizune, which brought back memories of other times she had been unable to do anything.

"I've always been able to spot talent, that boy has absolutely none," Orochimaru informed Jiraiya.

"That's why I like him. Screw ups are so much better than perfect, spoiled little shits like that Uchiha kid," Jiraiya said.

"Training yourself, ne? That child is nothing compared to my Sasuke-kun, who is blessed with one of the strongest bloodlines in Konoha," Orochimaru hissed, "Naruto is nothing more than a failure given a cheat." He looked up. "A ninja's talent is evident in their control of the almost limitless jutsu within this world. Those who can't use those jutsu, aren't ninja."

"Still blind. Didn't you ever listen to Sensei?" Jiraiya asked, "a ninja's true worth is not in how many jutsu they can use, but how powerful their heart is, their will to go on. That is the one lesson I will always treasure."

Down on the ground, Naruto had stepped in the way of Kabuto's fist, taking the blow on his forehead protector.

"You're finished!" Naruto shouted as he formed the Rasengan. Kabuto was absolutely stunned, never expecting such a thing from Naruto.

"Unlike that brat you want, Naruto will never stop until he succeeds," Jiraiya stated, "without his hatred, Uchiha Sasuke would be a useless, fumbling idiot like I used to be."

Naruto thrust his hand forward. Unfortunately, Kabuto dodged the attack. Kabuto used his scalpel to crack the bone in Naruto's leg, just to stop him from using the technique again. Even with his lack of talent, a clean hit would be devastating.

"That was a direct hit to the bone, so don't expect to move anytime soon," Kabuto stated like a doctor.

Naruto knew that being unable to form a rasengan with one hand slowed him down and made the jutsu incredibly difficult to use. With his leg injured, it would be impossible to land a hit.

"Scared of me? I'm not like you, I'm a real shinobi," Kabuto said with a smirk, "ready to run away again?" He pulled out one of his cards. "This is your data from the Chūnin exam. You are nothing at all, in fact, it is a small wonder you became a genin. Even with a lack of talent, your spirit more than qualifies you to become Hokage. Of course, being a coward will prevent that from happening." He put the card away. "Run away and your dream dies, or die and your dream ends here. When your instinct dictate that you run, listen to them." He noticed Naruto's glare. "Looks like that will only make me kill you." He moved a little closer to Tsunade, his ultimate target. "It is an obvious decision for a child, but your dream won't allow that. This means you will die here."

"I'm not dead...yet," Naruto grunted as he stood up. "I will never back down! That is my way!"

Kabuto was not amused and struck Naruto with another chakra scalpel blow.

"Why?" Tsunade asked as Naruto stood up again.

"That bet. I'm about to fulfil my end of it, so hand over that cursed necklace after I beat him down," Naruto said. **"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"** Naruto shouted as a single clone appeared next to him.

_'Why would he do that now?'_ Tsunade wondered. "Naruto! Don't kill yourself for me!"

Kabuto rushed forward with a kunai in hand. "Because you are so stubborn, I'll kill you!"

"If you die here, you'll never become Hokage!" Tsunade shouted, "just run away!"

Blood sprayed into the air.

"What?" Kabuto gasped, looking at the kunai in his forearm. Naruto had slammed his own kunai through the older boy's arm after deflecting the blow with the clone's help. He then realized that the blade was lodged through the gap in his bones, locking it in place. The only way he could escape was by destroying his arm.

Naruto firmly grasped the handle of his weapon. "This time, you won't dodge it," Naruto said, "I will become Hokage, so I cant die here!" He held his hand out as the clone helped him with creating the Rasengan. Without the strain in his arm, it was far more focused then before.

_'It's different this time!'_ Kabuto thought, terrified. His eyes widened further as Naruto's chakra spiked higher than before. It was the fox!

"It's finished!" Naruto shouted as he drove the spiralling ball of chakra into Kabuto's stomach.

The air around Kabuto became a tornado of chakra that threw him backwards and into a rock with enough force to shatter part of it.

_'He actually did mastered it, sort of,'_ Jiraiya thought as he felt pride in his student.

_'He produced such a destructive force...Could I have been wrong about him?'_ Orochimaru thought as he saw the boy as a possible threat in the future, especially if _they_ decided to use him as a weapon before taking what they wanted from him.

Tsunade was stunned. Minato had created Rasengan over a four year period. Even Jiraiya took a whole year to learn it. Naruto had mastered the jutsu in less than a month. She quickly switched to fear when Naruto coughed up blood and collapsed. She went over to him to see what was wrong. What bothered her was Kabuto's state. After taking a dead on hit from a proper Rasengan, he was still standing.

"I didn't get to be Orochimaru-sama's assistant because of my extensive jutsu knowledge or my fighting ability. I became his assistant because of my ability to withstand injuries and heal from them. I merely speed up the healing process of my cells after taking damage." Kabuto didn't bother mentioning the chakra drain. "That last jutsu was a desperation move, meaning I have nothing to fear anymore."

He coughed up blood and fell to his knees, then onto his face. _'That jutsu! It must have hit the internal organs! I can't fix those in the midst of battle!'_

Naruto started shaking, drawing Tsunade's attention. She quickly listened to his heart, hearing it beat erratically. _'That boy must have damaged his heart with one of his attacks! I have to heal him quickly before he dies!'_ Tsunade thought as she started using her chakra to knit the damage to his heart.

"I also cut the chakra connections his heart had to the Kyūbi, so it can't heal him," Kabuto said, "nothing can save him anymore."

"After I heal him, I'm going to hit you so hard it will take a millennium for your carcass to hit the ground," Tsunade growled. Memories of Dan and Nawaki after their deaths haunted her as she struggled to restore his chakra flow so the Kyūbi could heal him since she couldn't do it.

"_**What's happening?"**_

"_**What's this darkness?"**_

"_**Is this death?"**_

"_**No! NO! I REFUSE TO DIE HERE!"**_

Just when it seemed hopeless, Naruto reached up and took a hold of Tsunade's necklace. "I won," Naruto groaned, then passed out.

Tsunade removed her necklace and placed it around Naruto's neck, placing her hope into a third person.

"That boy is trouble," Orochimaru muttered.

"You should know as well as I do that Tsunade is the best medic in the world, Naruto is fine. Anyways, I thought I was your opponent," Jiraiya said, feeling the effects of the poison slip away more and more.

"Idiot! I didn't mean that," Orochimaru hissed back. _'That boy is becoming too powerful. If he is trained any further...I must kill him now!'_

He jumped off the serpent, intent on killing Naruto. Jiraiya followed, but Orochimaru threw him off course with his tongue. He faced forward and drew Kusanagi from his mouth, thankful that the deceased Hokage didn't get his current body's dominant arm. He swung his blade down at the boy.

CLANG!

"Just in time!" Yue grunted as she held the ninja back with Yin and Yang. She was worried though, Yin and Yang were screaming in protest to meeting Orochimaru's sword. She quickly threw the injured man back, knocking him off balance. Lightning coated her swords as she swung down, catching his right leg and cutting it deeply. She quickly retreated a sword length and a half away in case the snake retaliated.

"Damn!" Orochimaru grunted as pain and numbness took over his leg. He stumbled back a step, then moved forward with his sword held back, aiming to stab Naruto.

He hit Tsunade instead, right through her chest.

"Tsunade...I never wanted to harm you," Orochimaru gasped, "that child, he will become a problem for me in the future. Let me kill him."

"I'll die before you kill him," Tsunade hissed through the pain.

Orochimaru pulled his sword out of her. "Even though you are locked in fear over your own blood, why risk your life for that worthless genin?"

"I'm protecting Konoha," Tsunade said as she glared at the man.

Orochimaru frowned. "How is protecting him doing anything for Konoha?"

"Can't you see it with those 'talented' eyes of yours? This boy is Konoha's future, a Hokage," Tsunade said as she smiled fondly at Naruto.

"What is this now? Isn't Hokage a death sentence?" Orochimaru asked with a chuckle.

Yue wanted to growl and cut the man down, but she was focusing her chakra right now. Using her new jutsu was incredibly difficult. A simple mistake could be disastrous for everyone. She had to curb her violent, rash tendencies. Simple to say, but that was almost impossible to do!

Tsunade remembered everything that had happened, her insulting the Hokage title, Jiraiya lecturing her on the past Hokage, Naruto's determination to become one. She realized that her whole life, she had been a coward. "Just like them, I'll bet my life on it!"

"Choosing to die because of that brat. Fine! I'll unite you with those two, in death!" Orochimaru shouted as he held his sword up. He cut into Tsunade's shoulder, delivering a fatal wound. He then swung his blade at Naruto, intending to end all his threats.

Tsunade saw it coming and shielded Naruto with her own body. "I told you, my life is on the table now," the woman said as she shook in fear. So much blood.

"Worthless woman!" Orochimaru snapped as he kicked her off Naruto. He then watched in horror as her hands stopped trembling. His shock lasted long enough for Tsunade to drive her fist straight into his face.

"The reason I'm doing this is because I am the Godaime Hokage!" Tsunade growled as a seal spread across her forehead and part of her face.

"Tsunade-sama! If you release that seal then!" Shizune warned.

Tsunade ignored her and released the seal. Within moments, the wounds on her body sealed up, even as the diamond mark on her forehead vanished.

"So you are making new jutsu too. Care to elaborate?" Orochimaru asked.

Tsunade smiled as she wiped a bit of blood from her mouth away with her thumb. "I've been gathering chakra to that seal on my forehead. By releasing that seal, I send my healing factor into overdrive, erasing any wounds I have." She rubbed the blood onto her other arm, a clear as day sign of summoning. "I'll never die in battle as long as I have this seal."

"Orochimaru-sama! You have to summon _him!_" Kabuto shouted. He went to move, but several kunai were pinning him down by his pant legs. _'Damn demon cat! Must have gotten me while I was watching Tsunade!'_ He tried to move them, but they were magnetized to the ground. He tore his clothes to free himself, promising himself that he would sever all Yue's major muscle groups later as retribution.

Orochimaru bit his thumb and ran the blood over his contract seal, wincing in pain. Jiraiya went through the seals, hoping it worked this time.

Within a few moments, the area was inhabited by an enormous snake, toad and slug. Each of the Sannin stood upon their respective summon. Jiraiya stood upon Gamabunta the toad, Tsunade on Katsuya the slug and Orochimaru on the great serpent Manda.

"Hey dad!" one of the smaller toads greeted, only for Yue to rush by and carry him and his fellow toad away.

"Shut up! We don't want them to know we're here," Yue hissed. Tonton followed the hanyō, knowing she was going towards safety.

"Manda and Katsuya. One hell of a reunion, eh?" Gamabunta asked.

"Don't go cracking jokes at a time like this. We have a score to settle," Jiraiya said evenly, "this time, we defeat Orochimaru."

"Orochimaru, you bastard! Summoning me to a shit hole like this! You want to die that badly?" Manda hissed.

"Manda-sama, I beg your forgiveness at this time. Out thanks will be most generous later," Kabuto said, kissing scaled ass like no tomorrow.

"Shut up you table scrap or YOU will be part of your own generosity!" the serpent shouted as it tried to dislodge the boy. "100 hundred LIVE sacrifices! Give me that many or I'll eat you next time."

_'Calling Orochimaru-sama Manda's master would be a mistake. If Manda knew of Orochimaru-sama's weakness, we'd be dead before either of our enemies moved,'_ Kabuto thought.

"Katsuya, take this boy to Shizune," Tsunade ordered.

"Alright," the slug stated as it created a smaller body to carry Naruto down to the woman.

Shizune finished healing her legs in time to almost get crushed by the small piece of Katsuya and Naruto.

"Shizune-sama, please take this child to safety" the mini-Katsuya said, "the battle will be too much, so you should go as far away as you can."

Shizune looked to where the three great beasts stood off, hoping her master would be alright. She took the boy and ran as fast as she could.

"Oh look, food," Manda hissed as he tasted the air, staring at Gamabunta.

"What luck, I needed a new wallet," Gamabunta said as he drew his tantō, "maybe a new sheath for my sword too."

"You're too far gone, we are no longer comrades, Orochimaru," Jiraiya declared.

"Us? Comrades? When did that happen? I must have been sleeping or something!" Orochimaru shouted.

Katsuya started the fight with a spray of acid to Manda's head, barely missing the serpent. In a flash, Manda wrapped his body around Katsuya and started squeezing. He opened his mouth, intending to make Tsunade the first of a hundred sacrifices. All he got was a tantō in his mouth, which he bit down on to take from his amphibious foe. The great snake crushed Katsuya, only to watch the slug break it into hundreds of smaller ones. The snake shook off the toad and started to look for Tsunade.

"Tsunade! Get away from it!" Jiraiya shouted, attracting Manda's attention. Gamabunta dodged his own weapon, which Manda threw at him. "I need some oil," Jiraiya said. The two combined fire and oil together to roast Manda and his riders.

The flames died down slightly, revealing an odd looking corpse. A moment later, Jiraiya realized it was a cast off skin. The ground before them rose up slightly, indicating the Manda had escaped into the ground. Gamabunta caught what he thought was the snake's head, but was the tail. The head erupted from the ground behind him, mouth wide open.

"SHUT UP!" Tsunade shouted as she drove Gamabunta's enormous tantō down, closing Manda's mouth by impaling it.

"Two at once, troublesome!" Orochimaru shouted. He launched his tongue at Tsunade, wrapping it around her neck. He used that to pull himself towards her.

Tac! Tac! Tac!

"**Chidori!"** Yue shouted as she launched herself off the tantō, trying to drive the raiton at the approaching form of Orochimaru.

The Sannin's eyes opened in wonder. The girl had run through a battlefield of titans, up a gigantic blade and had hidden her chakra in the general chaos. The girl was using two jutsu, one was the chidori, the other, he didn't see anything. His eyes told him everything: this girl possessed incredible talent, but she was a diamond in the roughest of shapes, waiting for the right hands to mold her into a true, deadly beauty, hands like his own. She and Sasuke-kun were exactly alike, except Yue had no choice but to wear the darkness within her blood in the form of her hanyō features. That and she harboured no ill to anyone.

Enough thinking, he stretched his legs to the limit and kicked off the girl's shoulders to avoid her attack, then released Tsunade as he shot back to avoid any retaliation.

Orochimaru landed on the ground, then looked forward as Yue landed a small distance away from him. He could still the heavy chakra of an active jutsu, but he still couldn't see anything on her. He knew it wasn't genjutsu since she had zero talent for it, so what was it?

"Cat girl! Get away from him before he kills you!" Tsunade shouted down at the girl.

"You shut up and stay out of this!" Yue shouted back, "on that day when the Sandaime was killed, I vowed to destroy this snake, to finish what he couldn't!"

"Why would you do that?" Orochimaru asked.

Yue glared at the man, a tear rolling down her cheek. "Because he was the one who dragged me from that hell the Ruuko put me through! He believed in me, helped me become what I am today! If it wasn't for him, I would either be a slave still or dead!" The sound of chirping birds filled the area. "I'll drive this blade through your heart and tear it to ribbons!"

"Come then, try," Orochimaru challenged as he motioned for the girl to make the first move.

Yue charged forward, her left hand holding the lightning blade. She stabbed her hand forward, aiming at his chest. Orochimaru side stepped the blow and smirked. The girl was something else, much better than even Kakashi and Kabuto without their particular talents, but it was because she was blinded with rage and revenge. Without those two emotions, she would never attempt such a suicidal fight. Without them, she was weaker than the two paled haired men. Even so, the single minded rage that drove her made her beautiful to him. So much like Sasuke-kun... He was beginning to like her.

"Give up. You can't even touch me!" Orochimaru hissed in glee as he toyed with the girl.

"Try this then!" Yue shouted, as she changed tactics. She drove a chakra laced claw attack forward, then switched to kicks while holding herself up with her arm. One of the two blows connected with Orochimaru's chest, knocking the breath out of him for a moment.

Enough was enough, he would move ahead with his plan. He feinted a strike, making the girl move to his right side. He grabbed her head with his hand and smirked. "End of the line," he said.

"That's right," Yue said as she grinned back, **"chidori!"**

Orochimaru's eyes widened again as she thrust her hand forward, using his own lock against him as she aimed at his head. Unfortunately for her, he stretched his neck out and avoided the blow. While she was stunned at the feat, realizing that the woman who attacked them back in the forest was this man, Orochimaru's mouth slammed down onto the right side of her neck.

The girl screamed in agony as it felt like fire was pumped into her neck. Her body attempted to reject it, but the flaming chakra took root and started spreading.

Orochimaru released the girl, letting her drop to her knees before him. "That's right. That's the perfect posture for you. Kneel before your next master," the snake sannin commanded.

"Fuck you," Yue growled as she grabbed Orochimaru's left wrist with her right hand.

"Oh? Want to marry me now?" Orochimaru teased, then felt something strange. "W-what's happening?"

Yue grinned. "My newest jutsu, **Raise no Migite,"** the girl said. A black outline of a diamond appeared on the back of her right hand. Orochimaru watched in morbid fascination as it filled up with some sort of inky darkness, then it shot out like water and enveloped her fingers and part of her arm, making it looked like a stretch ripped leather glove on her hand. Her fingers were completely covered by this strange chakra.

That's when he felt it.

"What are you doing?" he shouted. The sensation was the same as before when Sarutobi had used that jutsu to take one of his arms away. "That jutsu will kill you!"

"Small price to pay to end you," Yue said, "and that poisonous bite, won't it kill me?"

Orochimaru was about to tell her about what he gave her, but screamed as a spectral fingers rose from his hand and bent sideways, being drawn towards that diamond on the back of the girl's hand. What made matters worse was he could feel it, feel the sensation of his fingers snapping against the knuckles. "Get her off me!" Orochimaru shouted to Kabuto. It was then that he noticed that his assistant couldn't even help himself right now. "Let go of me and I'll give you anything you want! Power, riches, anything!" he pleaded.

"I'm getting what I want! You'll die here!" Yue shouted.

Orochimaru watched as his entire forearm's soul was dragged into the diamond. It was then that he remembered Kusanagi, which he had dropped earlier when Tsunade punched him. He forced his left hand's fingers to move, signalling the sword into action.

The blade pierced the girl's leg. Shallow, but effective.

Yue gasped as she released the Sannin, her jutsu ripping the last of his forearm's soul into it before it sealed itself. A few crackles of black electricity danced on her arm before it fell limp.

Orochimaru laughed. "So that's the price for part of one arm? Your own arm is useless for now! I'll kill you!" he roared. Before he moved, he felt a sharp pain in his arm and looked down to watch it whither away to a twisted limb.

Yue grasped Kusanagi by the handle and ripped it out of her leg with a hiss of pain. "This is yours!" Yue shouted, then drove Kusanagi through his thigh.

Kabuto finally managed to get over to Orochimaru and pulled the blade out. "Goodnight, little kitten," the boy said.

Yue was about to shout a witty comment back, but pain shot through her entire body from her bite wound and she collapsed from the agony, unconscious.

"Kukuku. I got you all now," Orochimaru said.

"How do you figure?" Tsunade shot back.

"Do you wish to save this girl? If you let me leave, I'll tell you how to save her life," Orochimaru said.

"Another one-sided deal? I can heal her myself!" Tsunade shouted.

"No, you can't. I placed a special seal on her neck, sort of like Sasuke-kun. You can't heal that away," Orochimaru hissed.

"Then I'll seal it away!" Jiraiya declared.

Orochimaru laughed. "That child's body is different from a human's body. Who knows how a seal will affect her? Face it, you need my cure to save her. All you have to do is let us leave and the instructions will be delivered to that pink haired girl."

The two Sannin didn't like it, but they needed to let him go in order to save the girl. Orochimaru took the answer as what it was and left by sinking into the ground. Kabuto vanished in a cloud of smoke.

"Dammit! If only she didn't interfere!" Jiraiya shouted.

Tsunade placed a hand on his shoulder. "Other than sensei, she came closest to killing him. Rather than curse her stupidity, praise her bravery and determination." She looked around. "We have to hurry back to see if he held up his end of the bargain. I doubt she can last too long with that seal."

"As always, you suck at gambling," Jiraiya said as he picked up Naruto, noticing the necklace.

Tsunade trembled, feeling her henge wearing off.

"Whoa!" Jiraiya gasped. He knew that the years weren't kind to Tsunade, but wow!

"Shizune, take the girl. Don't worry about me. A little rest in the village should have me better in no time at all," Tsunade said.

"Tsunade..." Jiraiya said.

"That's not all I am now. From now on, call me the Godaime Hokage," Tsunade ordered.

"Hai, Tsunade-hime," Jiraiya saluted with a smirk. That was the Tsunade he knew and loved.

_[Two days later]_

"I don't believe it!" Naruto shouted, "she uses a henge all the time, so she can't be a good role model!" He then started listing off other character flaws that everyone knew about, pissing Tsunade off more and more.

"Outside! NOW!" Tsunade shouted at Naruto.

Once outside, the two stood facing each other like they had soon after their first meeting. "As a Hokage, all I need is a finger to deal with a genin like you," Tsunade stated as she held up her right index finger.

"Whatever! I'll be taking that job from you someday, so it doesn't matter!" Naruto shouted back.

Once more, Naruto ran forward. Once again, Tsunade knocked his forehead protector off and prepared to hit him with a finger flick. _'This is really going to hurt,'_ Naruto thought as he shut his eyes tightly.

He felt something warm, soft and damp on his forehead. He opened his eyes and realized that Tsunade had kissed his forehead. "Grow up to be a good man," Tsunade said.

"Yeah!" Naruto cheered.

"You...BAKA!" Sakura shouted as she grabbed Naruto's arm and tried to twist him into a new shape.

"S-Sakura-chan! Why are you here?" Shizune asked.

Sakura halted her current action, trying to move Naruto's right arm onto his left side, and released the poor boy. "Oh right," she reached into her pouch and pulled out a scroll wrapped around a bottle, "these were next to Yue's bed this morning. There is also a large scroll that I couldn't bring with me. She doesn't look too good..."

Tsunade took the scroll and quickly read it. "I don't believe this..."

"What is it?" Jiraiya asked.

"The way to save her. It's insane," Tsunade said as she shook slightly.

"What do we have to do?" Naruto asked. He wanted to help his friend and part-time sensei,

Tsunade looked at him, terrified at what she was going to have to tell him. "F-first we need to get out of the city, then I'll tell you."

Naruto frowned, but agreed and went to get his stuff.

**A/N~**

Next up is something a little sad, a betrayal of the worst kind.

On some good news... THANK KAMI! I only had up to volume 40 of Naruto before. Now I have it all of it, or at least I hope I do. Turns out my router is a piece of shit and was blocking me from accessing MangaTraders. I need to direct connect to my modem to roam the internet without issues. Then, my anti-viral bit my internet connection and screwed it up for a while before I found a loop hole and got it back up. Ever have your anti-viral program basically cock block your internet proxy?

I also grabbed Skyrim, so I have another distraction now. Don't worry, Skyrim actually gave me a way to make the sequel work. (No, nobody is going to be shouting Fus Ro Dah) Here's a little hint as to how Konoha's Three Demons (working title) will seem.

"Whatever happened to all the people forced out of Konoha due to the Sandaime's law concerning Naruto? And what is beyond the edges of the the Elemental Nations map?"

In K3D, you get to find out.

On a solemn note, the primary inspiration for Kazeneko Yue is no longer around. My pet cat died today around 2:45 PM. I was with her as she passed on and she fought the whole time, all so she could spend more time with me and prove her strength to me. She passed on peacefully after I told her that she was strong and now needed to rest. My cat lives on in some of Yue's mannerisms, attitude and spirit, which will be seen later.

**Jutsu Index-**

**Raise no Migite** [Right hand to the other world]: SS-rank kinjutsu. The user connects their arm to the realms of death. The chosen arm gets coated with a black, dead chakra gateway that allows them to send what they grab to the realms of death piece by painful piece. It is a smaller, but more demanding form of the Shiki Fūin. Developed by Kazeneko Yue and based off what little she knows about Shiki Fūin. The chakra demands and base stamina are very high, high enough to kill regular humans. Requires a whopping fifty-seven hand seals done in sections over a 36 hour period, so it can only be used if the user plans ahead. It also does damage equivalent to what the user is destroying, so a whole human body or a place that would kill the target would kill the user if absorbed.

**Responses-**

**xNinjaBlade45x:** Thanks for the compliment. Here's the next chappie!

**9-tailed reaper:** Yue was crying, but she'll get over it. I think... Ino is trying to help her get over it now.

Kuroishi Yue is from 'Necessary Darkness,' an unreleased fic. She took a stance similar ot the 'Gaara route' and has an extreme dislike of humans. She catches Ino peeking at her one time and forces Ino to become her slave/maid. While on that note, her last name, Kuroishi, which means 'Black Piece' or 'Black Stone.' It relates to something I don't want to spoil at this time. Let's just say a certain lazy genius has played it before.

To clear the confusion, they are two different people from two different fics.

As for screwed up characters, wait until later. Ino has to go and fuck around with her head a little before she is thoroughly fucked up. Oops, just spoiled the story a bit.

And yes, Yamanaka Santa is actually a canon character. He appeared around the beginning of the fourth shinobi war. He isn't fat and I'm pretty sure he doesn't wear red. He is the guy who helped Kakashi seal a revived ninja away. While on that note, Kakashi and Rukia from Bleach both have similar art skills. Deidara disapproves of them and recommends his art instead.

**Firestar001:** I know. Some of my favorite stories haven't updated in forever. Lucky for me, Naruto the Gilgamesh is still updating. I actually decided to work on fics so people would have something to read while waiting for the good stuff. In other words, I consider my stories a little holdover until one of the major writers gives us a new chapter.

I don't consider myself one of the greats on this site. I'll admit I'm probably up there in the ranks, but I'm still way, way below their level. In terms of writing ability, in Naruto terms, I'd probably be a green ANBU at best, a decent jōnin (since I do have flaws) at the least.

**thedarkpokemaster:** I already decided that Sakura would NOT be involved in the fight at all. If Orochimaru was enough for her to nearly lose her mind, all three Sannin clashing with intent to kill would reduce Sakura to a drooling mess for the rest of her life. Can't have Naruto marry her like that, so she is sitting on the sidelines for the big fight.

**SuperNeos2:** Too generic for me to think of something to say, other than: thanks.

**Rocketshipping Fan:**Hya? Sorry, but I do that when I get confused. Do you mean when Naruto and Sasuke fight? I'm struggling with that fight because it is difficult to change due to Naruto's slightly increased abilities. I've altered it, but the changes are slight. Naruto doesn't get battered around so much and he realizes a horrible truth concerning his beliefs.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20: To betray your master

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Running out of witty comments.**

The group was now in a clearing a fair distance from Tanzaku Quarters.

"Alright, what's this all about?" Jiraiya asked. The suspense was killing him.

Tsunade bit her lip and looked down at the hanyō, sorry about what was about to occur. "What Orochimaru placed on her is what he calls a 'curse seal.' It is designed to force the user to rely upon a virulent form of chakra which steadily damages them physically," she explained. "Treatment for this seal is dangerous..." What an understatement that was.

"What do we have to do?" Sakura asked.

Tsunade held up the bottle. "This is a mind awakening pill. It is designed to 'treat' the curse seal."

"Why don't you just-" Naruto started, but Shizune placed a hand over his mouth.

"What does it do?" the black haired woman asked. For Tsunade-sama to be so hesitant about treating someone... It must be horrible.

"This pill...in order to cure the victim...we have to..." Tsunade couldn't bring herself to say it.

"What do we have to do!" Naruto shouted. He was getting angry now.

Naruto's anger loosened Tsunade's tongue, actually unleashing some of her own anger. "We have to give her this pill, which will kill her!"

Everyone paled. How could killing someone cure them?

"We're lucky because the next part requires-" Tsunade started, only for Jiraiya to grab her shoulders and shake her slightly.

"What? Us burying her out here? I'm not killing her!" the white haired man shouted.

Tsunade shoved him off. "When I say kill, I don't mean that she dies." She lightly shook the pill bottle. "This pill does kill a person, but the next part prevents it. With the treatment, the virulent chakra spreads throughout her body and alters itself so it is far more potent, as are its effects." She let that sink in before continuing. "After we give her the pill, we will all perform a barrier jutsu together that will increase her chances of survival by lessening the impact the chakra has on her body. Instead of death, it will be a near death coma. I'm going to show you the seals, you have to get them right or the jutsu will fail and she will most likely die. We also have to sync up perfectly or it won't work." She showed them the seals, then spoke with Jiraiya for a few moments, who got some blank tags out.

"Let's do this and get it right, or else you two will see too much of Orochimaru in the future," Jiraiya said ominously.

"Huh?" Naruto and Sakura said at the same time.

Jiraiya smiled in a creepy fashion. "Those who betray their masters or sensei have a nice, cold spot in the bottommost ring of Hell."

The two genin gulped. Tsunade slapped the old man upside the head. "Stop being an idiot! We all need to focus!"

Jiraiya chuckled a bit, then stopped as the whole process started. Tsunade made Yue swallow the pill and then checked her vitals, making sure that the pill was working properly. When she confirmed that Yue's life signs were dropping, she unsealed a coffin from the large scroll that had been with the pill and instructions.

"This is really starting to creep me out," Sakura whined. She assisted Naruto in placing their teammate into the coffin.

With that done, they quickly ran through the seals, all in sync. **"Shikokumujin!"** they all shouted at the same time, sealing Yue and what appeared to be a large amount of black chakra into the coffin. Jiraiya quickly put the tags onto the now sealed coffin.

"Will this really help her?" Shizune asked.

Tsunade looked up at the sky, worried. "I really don't know... I hope so."

Jiraiya picked up the coffin, noting that it didn't weigh that much. "Let's get back to Konoha. We may be able to do more for her there, and we also have to bring back the new Hokage."

The others nodded and they all left, not noticing they were being watched.

_[Underground lair]_

Orochimaru groaned in pain. He needed to switch bodies soon, this one had suffered too much damage and it was starting to reject him.

"Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto greeted as he hobbled into the room. His injuries were mostly healed, but it still hurt to move.

"Well, did they do it?" the Sannin asked.

Kabuto nodded, having been contacted by the Oto spy that delivered the scrolls and pills to the Leaf-nin. "As we speak, Kazeneko Yue is advancing to the second level of your new curse seal."

Orochimaru smiled. "Perfect. That new seal may be more useful than the Curse Seal of Heaven."

Kabuto frowned. "Orochimaru-sama, you used the new seal on her... What about testing? What about Sasuke? Wouldn't it be better to put it on your next container?"

The Sannin chuckled to himself. "She is the test. This new seal is closest to the original infection, with a few tweaks here and there. Let's just say that I found a new, easier method of changing bodies, one that can defeat the Sharingan. If it works with Yue-kun, then Sasuke-kun will receive it next. And as always, I take everything with me when I change bodies, even if they don't know what they have."

_[Konoha, two days later]_

"The village has changed so much since I last saw it..." Tsunade muttered to herself. She smiled. "It's my responsibility now to protect it."

"You actually managed to convince her to come back..." Homura said in wonder.

"Of course I did! Women love me, the number one lady killer!" Jiraiya boasted.

_'Since she paralysed you to stop you from following her, I don't think you had much to do with it,'_ Naruto thought while he sweat a bit at his off and on again master's antics.

"We must call the Daimyo to celebrate the arrival of the Godaime Hokage," Koharu said, "Genma, Aoda. You two gather our guests." The two men nodded and left on their duties.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted, "Tsunade has to do her medic thing first!"

"Who are my patients again?" Tsunade asked with an uneasy smile.

Jiraiya muttered something about old age and how it affected the mind. "Guy's student Lee, Hatake Kakashi and the Uchiha."

Tsunade remembered how the pervert had vanished briefly, saying that he would be placing the coffin containing Yue in a safe place within the hospital. She started walking, knowing where the hospital was by heart.

_[Konoha Hospital]_

Shikamaru glanced upward and saw Naruto with some important looking people coming down the stairs. "Hey Naruto! What are you doing here?" He lazily noticed Sakura split off from the group at a brisk pace, most likely to visit Sasuke.

"What are YOU doing here?" Naruto asked, "only the administration office is around here."

"Annoying stuff, as always." Shikamaru said.

Naruto was confused. Annoying stuff was a very, very broad topic with any Nara, let alone Shikamaru. It was almost as broad as 'troublesome stuff.'

Nara Shikaku bowed his head to the two people with Naruto. "Jiraiya-sama, Tsunade-sama. How are you today?"

"You must be a Nara. Who's the boy?" Tsunade asked.

"He is my son, Shikamaru," Shikaku said.

Tsunade smiled a bit. "Are the Nara still raising deer?" Shikaku nodded. "That's great. Their antlers have many properties that could be used in medicines."

Shikamaru leaned closer to Naruto. "Hey, who's the broad?"

Naruto placed a hand next to his mouth so Tsunade couldn't hear him. "She's the new Hokage. And don't be fooled by her looks, she's over fifty!"

Shikamaru looked mildly disturbed at the news of the new Hokage's age. He would be having nightmares for a while.

"I have patients to see now, I'll see you later," Tsunade said as she made her way to the entrance of the intensive care ward.

"Shikamaru. Let's meet up later, I got this wicked jutsu to show you," Naruto said to his friend.

"Baka! What ninja shows off his jutsu?" Jiraiya asked as he caught Naruto in a headlock.

Shikamaru then noticed something. The group was slightly smaller than it should have been. "Where's Kazeneko?"

Everyone stiffened slightly. Even Tsunade stopped dead.

"Ah..Um..." Naruto looked to the adults for answers.

"We'll announce it later," Tsunade said, then left to treat her patients.

Shikamaru wanted to ask his father if he noticed anything odd, but decided he had more pressing matters. "Who was she?"

Shikaku leaned closer to his son. "She is the world's most beautiful, most powerful woman. She is the legendary kunoichi of the Sannin."

"A woman being Hokage...Troublesome," Shikamaru huffed. "They only care about themselves, act annoying one moment, nice the next, then they're at each others throats. To make matters worse, they think they can lord over us guys. I hate women..."

"Shikamaru, men are worthless without women. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't exist at all. Even the roughest woman will be tender to the man she loves," the scared man said as he turned from his son, "you'll understand some day."

_'Tender to the man she loves? Mom must hate your guts then since she is such a slave driver,'_ Shikamaru thought.

"Well! You still have something to do here. I have to get home or I'm going to get screamed at," Shikaku said as he hurried away.

Shikamaru watched his father walk away and sighed. _'He is so whipped by mom. I'm never going to end up that way.'_

_[Sasuke's room]_

Sakura looked down at her teammate, wondering if he was truly in a coma or just sleeping.

"Sakura, may we come in?" Tsunade asked from the doorway.

Sakura looked back at her and nodded. "Please, help Sasuke-kun." she pleaded.

"Of course," Tsunade said with a smile. She placed a hand upon his head and used a simple medical jutsu to determine what was wrong, the very same jutsu Yue had used on herself after Itachi attacked Naruto. She realigned the chakra flow in his brain. She took her hand off his head and looked to Sakura. "He will wake up soon."

A few minutes later, Sasuke was up and looking around as if in a daze. Sakura locked him up in a hug as Naruto watched, his heart shattering a bit more. He decided to quietly leave, wanting to go eat something as well as leave Sakura to the one she loved. Yue would be 'looked' over later by Hiashi, since the Byakugan may be able to see what was going on inside the coffin. Kakashi was the same as Sasuke, so he would be alright. Naruto needed to fuel up so he could cheer when Lee made a full recovery.

_[Kakashi's room, a few minutes later]_

"And what makes you a genius again?" Tsunade asked, poking at the man for a bit of fun. Maybe he wouldn't be so damn aloof if he was the village laughing stock for a few days. What bothered her was that he woke up the moment she touched his mask, which she did right after treating him. Sakura and Naruto were right, Kakashi would rise from the grave to protect his hidden features.

"Enough of this baka! Lee-kun needs you!" Guy shouted as he pointed towards Lee's room. Tsunade followed him, mildly disturbed that his hands kept pointing the whole way. All his talk of 'flames of youth' didn't help much either.

After getting to the room, she had the boy remove the gown and sit down so she could examine his back. A few moments into looking it over, she realized what was wrong.

"How is Lee-kun?" Guy asked, noticing that she was finished examining the boy.

"I'm sorry to say this, but you can no longer be a ninja," Tsunade stated.

The two were shocked. "T-this is a joke, right?" Guy asked.

"Whatever he did, it put fragments of bone into his spinal cord," Tsunade said, "with that injury, being a ninja is impossible. Even if I operated on you, there is only a-"

"This must be a trick! Dispel the henge now!" Guy commanded.

"What are the odds?" Lee asked, "of the surgery."

"At best, fifty-fifty. I'm the only one who can do it, but even I wouldn't risk it," Tsunade said, "if you get the other fifty, you die." She waited for a few moments for the two to process that information. "If it does succeed, the rehabilitation will be long and exhausting"

Lee got dressed and left the room. Guy looked to the medic. "Tsunade-sama..."

"I had to tell him the truth. We may have already lost someone, I don't want to risk losing another," Tsunade said.

"Lost someone?" Guy asked, then realized that he hadn't seen Yue or felt her flames of youth at all. "What happened to Yue-kun!"

"I'm going to announce it soon at the village center," Tsunade said, then left to check on her final patient.

"If I knew you would say that to Lee-kun, I would have never let you seen him," Guy said before Tsunade left the room.

Tsunade didn't look back. "It's better to tell him than let him live with a blind hope that may never come true."

_[A sealed room beneath the hospital]_

Tsunade approached the door, signalling the two ANBU to step aside. She released the chakra locks and opened the door.

In the dead center of the room, with a couple rings of restriction seals around it and several chakra laced chains holding it down, sat the coffin Yue was in. Hiashi was off to the side on a stone bench. He looked tired.

"Anything?" Tsunade asked.

Hiashi shook his head. "It was like looking into jet black water during a moonless night. I also need more chakra than normal just to activate my byakugan around it, like its sucking out my chakra as I channel it to my eyes."

Tsunade frowned. "Let's go. I have to relay Yue's condition to the village."

Hiashi looked her dead in the eyes. "The council will want to get rid of her. They never wanted her in the village in the first place, same with the Uzumaki boy."

"The council can come down here and take her away over my dead body, since only me and Jiraiya can unlock those seals," Tsunade growled.

Hiashi smiled wanly. He would never openly admit it, but Yue's antics had been relaxing to see before that fateful night when her mission went south. He hoped that he would see it again someday. Of course, he hoped the property damage would be kept to a minimum. Then again, it was never truly her fault. Naruto also brought a certain...light to the village. He had, more often than not, seen the scolding and shouting shopkeepers crack a grin before giving chase.

He got up and followed the new Hokage.

_[Village center]_

People were murmuring amongst themselves. Tsunade noticed that there was no loud, annoying blond boy in the crowd. He must have gone back to the hospital to check on his friend.

"You all know that Jiraiya, Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Kazeneko Yue left the village to find me a little while ago. They succeeded and I now stand before you, but not all is right," Tsunade took a moment to compose herself, "during the mission, Kazeneko Yue was attacked by Orochimaru. She was-"

_[Sasuke's room]_

Sakura was busying herself by peeling an apple for Sasuke while he wandered the realms of self-pity and loathing. Itachi defeating him, Sakura's soft expression after learning that it was Naruto who had saved her from Gaara's sand claw, Naruto's clone assault on Gaara, that giant toad Naruto summoned. With each memory, his hatred for himself and his weakness grew.

"Sasuke-kun! Would you like an apple? I-" Sakura started, but Sasuke slapped the plate out of her hands. "S-Sasuke-kun?"

All across the village, several shinobi had a bird visit them, indicating a mission.

At Ichiraku Ramen, Naruto was busy eating with his favourite teacher, Iruka.

"You've really grown since you asked me if you could wear my forehead protector," the man praised.

"Of course I did! I'm going to be Hokage!" Naruto cheered with a mouthful of food, "and this headband fits perfectly!"

"Stop talking with food in your mouth," Iruka chastised, then grinned, "you still have a lot to learn." Naruto pouted. "Naruto, our village is in rough shape. Not only did we lose the Sandaime, we also lost some talented ninja, leaving us at half strength," Iruka said, "we still complete every request we receive."

"Why? If we don't have enough people, can't we turn them down or something?" Naruto asked.

Iruka frowned. "We do that and we send a message that we are weak. We do this to maintain a balance of power with the other shinobi villages. If we refuse missions, they get them instead." The man sighed. "Even I'm out there. With the academy closed, every shinobi is on a mission. Even Kakashi is going on missions and he hasn't even been properly discharged yet. Since you want to become Hokage someday, remember that we must appear strong even when we're weakened."

"What a drag," Naruto said, mimicking Shikamaru.

"That applies to you too," Iruka stated, "that forehead protector means that you have to do your part too."

"First: fill my stomach with ramen, then I'll grab a mission," Naruto said as he dug into his meal again.

Iruka started laughing. "You're still the same Naruto. Good luck!"

"Sure thing!" Naruto said after downing the rest of his ramen, "time to get going!" He rushed away, intending to visit Sasuke first.

_[Konoha Hospital]_

Naruto walked into the room, wondering why a plate was on the ground and Sakura just stood there.

Sasuke noticed Naruto and glared at him, eyes filled with hatred.

"That's a look you shoot your enemy," Naruto stated.

That was when Sakura looked at Naruto, then looked at Sasuke. Something about the Uchiha's eyes scared her.

"Well?" Naruto asked. What's up with Sasuke?

"Fight me," Sasuke muttered.

"What? But you're still recovering," Naruto said.

"Shut up and fight!" Sasuke growled as his sharingan blazed to life.

Now the two knew something was off about Sasuke. He never directly confronted Naruto, it was the other way around. For Sasuke, the score was always heavily tilted in his favour, meaning a competition was worthless. Something must have changed.

"You didn't help me," Sasuke said, "that Godaime, whoever it is, sticking their nose into my affairs. Useless idiot." He got up and walked up to Naruto, glaring into the boy's eyes. He didn't have to look down so much anymore.

"Sasuke-kun! What are you thinking!" Sakura whined, "Naruto, stop him!"

Naruto wanted to say that he was willing to fight, but it wasn't right. "Rest until you are 100%, then we'll have a match."

Sasuke kicked his bed back and into the wall under the window. "I don't need to be at full strength to beat the likes of you. Now fight me!"

Naruto wanted to avoid this for Sakura's sake, but Sasuke would most likely drag him to a suitable fighting area if he turned his back on him. "Fine then, but not here."

"Cut it out," Sakura muttered.

"This way," Sasuke said, then walked out of the room. Naruto followed him.

On the rooftop, the two stood a good distance apart. Sakura rushed through the door and stood near it, scared.

_'I want to fight him too,'_ Naruto thought, then smiled in contentment.

Sasuke frowned. "What's making you smile? Think of something funny? Or is it something stupid, like always?"

"No, I'm just happy to fight you," Naruto said as his grin got wider, "now I can beat you."

"You get hit over the head or something? You're a loser and you will never beat me," Sasuke said.

"I'm not a loser anymore. I'm much stronger than before," Naruto stated.

Sasuke huffed. "Stop being so full of yourself. You don't have a hope of matching me."

Naruto chuckled. "Something wrong? You challenged me, so that means you see me as a worthy opponent now. Could it be that you're scared now that we are ready to spar?"

"Shut up!" Sasuke shouted.

"Fine, but put on your forehead protector," Naruto said.

"I don't need it," Sasuke muttered.

"Just put it on!" Naruto shouted back.

"I don't need it since you won't come close to touching me, let alone my forehead!" Sasuke roared.

Naruto angrily placed a hand on his forehead protector. "Not that! We are both shinobi of Konoha, equals! That is what this forehead protector means!"

"Equals? We never were and never will be equals!" Sasuke shouted.

Naruto shook his head. "We are equals. I never thought we were that different when it came to strength."

Sasuke lost a bit of his control. "You bastard!"

"Shut up. You're only angry because you're weaker than me," Naruto shot back.

That was it, Sasuke moved forward first.

"Naruto!" he shouted.

Naruto silently charged forward. He didn't need to waste his energy screaming.

_[Sealed room, Konoha Hospital]_

Crick...

Crick...

CRACK!

CRACKCRACKCRACK!

The coffin that contained Yue fractured, fault lines that emit purple light lined the surface. From a few cracks, dark purple sparks started spitting out. From the other side, dark red embers slipped out every once in a while.

_[Rooftop]_

The two met in the middle, each blocking the others fist with their other hand. Naruto noticed Sasuke's kick and released the grapple, jumping out of range. He performed a single seal.

"**Tajū Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"** Naruto shouted as a hundred or so clones appeared. Many rushed forward, forcing Sasuke to fight them. He struck one back, dispelling it. He then slipped below the guard of two more, kicking them into the air.

That's when it all went bad. The clones rushed in, kicking him into the air. **"U-zu-ma-ki!"** the clones chanted as he was lifted by their kicks. Sasuke saw Naruto coming at him and knew what was coming. It was obvious that Naruto did a little stealing of his own.

"**Naruto Rendan!"** the blond shouted as he swung his leg down on Sasuke's arms. Sasuke formed the final seal, startling Naruto.

"**Gōkakyū no jutsu!"** Sasuke shouted as he turned the rooftop into a brief pyre, consuming Naruto and his clones in flames. He was surprised when the flames cleared and Naruto was still there. Sasuke grit his teeth in anger and went through the seals. **"Chidori!"** Sasuke growled as the lightning blade coated his hand. Now Naruto would fall!

"Hah! Yue's looks so much stronger and she hasn't even mastered it yet!" Naruto shouted. He created a single clone, then had it help him form a rasengan.

_'Wh-what the hell is that?'_ Sasuke thought as he stared at the ball of chakra, _'whatever. My chidori will rip through it and him!'_ He fell towards Naruto, aiming the lightning blade at Naruto's chest.

_'That's right, come down here. Once you're on the ground, I'll scare you into going back to your room,'_ Naruto thought as he wondered what to hit. Fence? Ground? No, not the ground. Um, maybe the wall to the rooftop access. Oh! His clone would be good. Seeing the Naruto clone fly away in a tornado of chakra would send Sasuke back to his room! Hopefully make him a bit more mature too.

Sakura was truly scared now. "Stop it...STOP!" She rushed out in front of Naruto, intending to stop Sasuke's attack. There was no KI coming from Naruto, but Sasuke was another story.

_'Sakura-chan!'_ Naruto thought in a panic. The tiny semblance of reason left within Sasuke told him that he was about to do something very wrong.

"Cool off!" Kakashi shouted, having appeared from nowhere. He threw the boys at the water tanks, knowing that whatever jutsu was being used couldn't stand up the metal tanks. _'That jutsu...Where and why did Naruto learn that?'_

The two impacted the tanks, Sasuke's hand punching a hole into it and deforming the tank. Naruto's just left a large dent in it.

"This is a hospital, not an arena! There is no need to get so hot under the collar during a spar!" Kakashi shouted.

Sasuke ripped his arm free, satisfied when he saw the torrent of water coming from the puncture he put into the metal. Naruto's had just left a fair sized dent.

"Drop that superiority complex or I'll drop it for you," Kakashi warned from on top of the water tank, "that chidori was far too strong for a friendly spar. It shouldn't have even been used in the first place. You could have...Wait, did you want to kill him!"

Sasuke's glare said it all. Sakura was terrified. She thought that Sasuke just wanted to hurt Naruto, not kill him.

Kakashi sighed. "When did you become such an immature brat?"

"I've had enough of this joke, this team," Sasuke said, then jumped over the fence. Upon landing on a scaffold, he started when he landed in a puddle, then looked up after a drop of water hit his head. "What?" Sasuke gasped as he found the source of the water. The tank Naruto had hit was blown out in the back, like an explosive tag had gone off inside of it. It didn't take a genius to figure out what happened, it had been Naruto's jutsu. Sasuke hit the wall. "Dammit! I got stronger, but Naruto.. Just how strong is he now?" He stomped off, fed up with everything.

On the rooftop, Sakura was crying. Kakashi was annoyed at how things had changed.

"You taught him that jutsu, didn't you, Jiraiya-sama?" Kakashi asked the man hiding behind the water tank. "Naruto shouldn't know such a technique, he could have killed Sasuke with it."

"And Sasuke is too young for that chidori of yours. What does he need it for? Does he have someone after him too?" Jiraiya asked in an accusing manner.

"You should have taught him to not use it against teammates," Kakashi said.

Jiraiya was going to tell Kakashi who started using deadly jutsu first, but Sakura beat him to it. "Yue was right about you..." Sakura muttered.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked.

"Naruto didn't want to hit Sasuke with his jutsu! He was trying to scare Sasuke or something! Sasuke wanted to kill Naruto just now!" she took a deep breath, "Yue was right about you. You talk about team work and being fair, but you still prefer Sasuke over everyone else!"

"Th-that's not true," Kakashi protested, "Naruto escalated the fight with his ra-"

"SASUKE USED THE CHIDORI FIRST!" Sakura shouted. She choked on a few sobs and then ran to the door. "You're not my sensei anymore!" BANG!

After a few moments, Jiraiya decided to continue on. "What do you think is going on between Naruto and Sasuke?"

Kakashi sighed, realizing he had screwed up again. He was doing that far too much lately. "If I had to guess, it is sort of like you and Orochimaru from your genin days."

Jiraiya frowned, then snorted. There never was anything between them.

Kakashi looked to the clouds. "Sasuke is Naruto's rival, his goal. He wants to be Sasuke's equal. He's lived in Sasuke's shadow since day one at the academy, so he must have gotten tired of Sasuke's arrogance. All Naruto wants is for Sasuke to see him as an equal, a person worthy to be recognized and respected." Kakashi looked over to the door Sakura had fled through. "But Sasuke will never do that. He is scared of Naruto's rapid development, seeing his own lack of growth as a weakness. He feels that he needs to get stronger faster than anyone else."

"For his revenge against Itachi," Jiraiya stated.

"If Sasuke were to admit that Naruto, a person he views as permanently inferior, was his equal, his reason for living would be gone," Kakashi said.

"Nothing to it, just say the right things to the brats and everything will be better," Jiraiya said with a smile.

"I hope so. You go to Naruto, he trusts anyone more than me now," Kakashi said sadly, knowing the same was true with Sakura, "I still have some things to discuss with Sasuke. I also have a mission later."

Nearby, the Sound Four were watching Sasuke, fascinated by the hatred in his eyes. It was time for them to move forward.

Sasuke was in a tree when the wire wrapped around him, pinning him to the tree. Sasuke glared at his captor, Hatake Kakashi.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked, "release me now!"

"If I didn't tie you up like this, you would never listen to me," Kakashi said as he made sure the wire was not going to come loose.

The Sound Four backed off, not entirely sure a battle against Kakashi was worth it. They were also bothered by a...heavy feeling coming from below them, almost like something was dragging at them.

Kakashi noticed that his seal on Sasuke's neck was deteriorating. "I'll only say this once: don't go seeking revenge," the jōnin stated, "when a shinobi seeks vengeance, it never ends well for him. Once you get your revenge, you'll either seek self-destruction or the destruction of others to fill the void in your heart."

"What do you know about me? You don't understand me at all!" Sasuke shouted. He grinned in a very sickly, Orochimaru-like fashion. "What if I killed those important to you? I doubt anyone in this village could continue on like you say if I did that."

"That's not possible. These important people you seek," Kakashi took a breath and then smiled lightly, "they're all dead already, killed by men and means greater than you could ever imagine."

That shocked Sasuke. Kakashi already lost everyone important to him, but he didn't seek revenge. Why?

"I lived through a war the likes of which your academy textbooks can't even begin to hint at. I know loss and pain far better than you do," Kakashi said, "while we aren't lucky with family, you and me found something just as important: friends and comrades." Kakashi loosened the wire. "The chidori is a power I decided to give to you because you lost your bonds and forged new ones. It is a blade that protects those bonds, not something to be used against a friend. If you can't see truth in what I have said, never use the chidori again." The jōnin vanished, wanting to get his mission over with.

On the nearby rooftop, Kidōmaru grinned. "Let's get him while he's alone and confused."

Tayuya sighed. "For useless assholes like you guys, it is impossible. I can do it, so leave it to me."

"I think we can easily cut him into chunks," Sakon said with a smirk.

"Shut it, ya queer," Tayuya snapped.

Jirōbō looked over at the girl. "Tayuya, girls shouldn't use that lan-"

"Fuck off, fat ass pig," Tayuya said, cutting him off. The group decided to wait, just in case someone else came to check up on the boy. Besides, he wasn't going anywhere.

_[Nighttime, same place]_

Sasuke was thinking of his sensei's words. They did make some sense, but the more he thought of it, the less sensible they seemed.

Whoosh.

He looked up, noticing four figures coming at him. They landed on the branches around him. "Who are you four?"

"Sound Four, east gate. Kidōmaru," the six armed man said.

"South gate, Jirōbō," the large man stated.

"West gate, Sakon," the strange looking guy said.

"North gate, Tayuya," the redhead said with a glare.

With that done, the four came at Sasuke. He deflected Kidōmaru's punch and used him as a post to kick Sakon in the chest. Jirōbō came for him with a straight punch, but Sasuke dodged it and used the man's weight against him, tossing him at the others. They struck the tree, but four logs were left behind. He felt their chakra behind him.

"I'm in a bad mood right now, so I'm going to take it out on you four," Sasuke threatened.

"You know what they say: the loudest dogs are the weakest dogs," Sakon jeered. "Come on, I want to play you a song on your ribs."

Sasuke jumped at him, pulling some wire out of his pouch. He blocked the man's kick, then released it to get by him. With that done, Sasuke tugged on his wire, pinning Sakon's feet to the rooftop.

"What? When did you?" Sakon gasped.

Sasuke went for a kick to the neck, knowing that would end it. Sakon saw it coming and blocked it. He grabbed the boy's leg, hoping to immobilize him. Sasuke struck with a punch, aiming for the face. Sakon blocked this too. Sasuke smirked, he had him locked up now. He swung his free leg at the top of Sakon's head.

"Music...!" Sakon said in a creepy tone.

Sasuke was suddenly thrown away and into a tree. _'What? I tied up his hands, so how did he throw me?'_

"Such a low note. Think I can bring out some higher notes?" Sakon suggested.

Sasuke noticed the sneak attack from Kidōmaru and dodged upwards to escape. Kidōmaru spat some kind of webbing at him from his mouth, pinning Sasuke's arms together. Using the webs as a modified ninja wire, Kidōmaru threw Sasuke to Jirōbō, who clocked Sasuke over the head as the webbing tore. Still in the air, Sasuke noticed he was flying over to Sakon again and drove a kick into the man's chest again, knocking him into the air.

"What?" Sakon growled as he went up.

Sasuke appeared in the air with him, performing a kick, then a punch, then a spinning heel drop to Sakon's chest. **"Shishi Rendan!"**

_[Sakura's home]_

Sakura was somewhat happy, remembering how Naruto cheered her up after their 'date.' Naruto had refused to call it a date, saying it was just having lunch as teammates. She had told him about Sasuke's curse seal. Naruto had told her that Sasuke could resist the curse seal because he was strong.

Why was it that she was so happy? Naruto had said nice stuff before...

_[Sasuke VS Sound Four]_

It made no sense. Sasuke had struck Sakon with everything he had, but the man seemed to be unfazed by anything that hit him.

"What's wrong with Orochimaru-sama? You can find a weakling like this anywhere," Sakon said as he held Sasuke up by his ankle. "Must be this pathetic excuse for a 'shinobi' village. This place breeds weakness. You don't need to play ninja, you are a ninja!"

"Follow us and Orochimaru-sama will give you all the power you desire," Tayuya stated as she glared down at him. It was then that Sasuke realized she hadn't fought at all. Either she wasn't good at taijutsu or she served some other function in the team.

Sakon threw him into the wall. "Stop screwing around and make a choice! Are you coming or not?" Sakon demanded. "If you don't answer me soon, I'll just kill you like all the other idiots who couldn't make up their minds in time."

"Make me!" Sasuke growled as his curse seal broke free from its prison.

"A curse seal," Sakon said in mild wonder.

Sasuke charged at them, knowing he was stronger now.

Crack!

Sasuke fell down, feeling his rib fracture from the impact. It made no sense, it was even more one sided than before!

"Did you think you were the only one?" Sakon asked as his seal consumed him.

Sasuke was stunned. It didn't seem to hurt Sakon at all.

"You still can't control it yet? Don't go using it all the time," Sakon warned, "keep blasting it around like that and it will burn you out and eat you from the outside in. Your seal is still at level one, meaning the decay is slow, but it can still eat you. If that happens, you will be destroyed."

Sasuke's seal receded.

"The seal doesn't give you power, it binds you to Orochimaru-sama," Tayuya said, "we four have already lost our will. It is a give and take world. In order to get this power, you have to leave this village. If you stay, you will lose your way and be unable to defeat Itachi."

"This village is a chain that will keep tightening around your neck until you are its thoughtless slave," Sakon said, "sever these weak, useless bonds and you will gain true power."

"Don't forget, you are the one chosen to destroy Itachi," Kidōmaru said as the four left.

It didn't take much thinking. Compared to what Kakashi had said, the Sound Four made more sense.

_[Beneath Konoha Hospital]_

Jiraiya's restriction seals burst into flames as the air in the room started to ripple as if it were water. The cracks were now emitting a steady flow of deep red flames and almost black lightning. Had the door not been so heavily protected, more than a 'dragging' sensation would have been felt around Konoha.

The chains started to rust and rot, a blackness eating away at them like acid.

Yue was reacting to the fights, reacting to the bloodlust, to the negative emotions, to other curse seals. They was awakening her and the curse seal branded onto her neck as it corrupted her flesh with its vile power, twisting her into an even more potent biological weapon for whoever held her chains.

Who would control her? Konoha? Orochimaru?

Or would she finally be free?

_[Uchiha compound, Sasuke's apartment]_

Sasuke gathered up what he needed, stopping to look upon the photo of Team 7. He put the picture face down and left. Team 7 was over, he had grown too great for it.

**A/N~**

I'm happy nobody pointed out how corny some of Yue's lines were last chapter. Also, some characters are going to have completely new character songs for Part II since I've gone and slightly altered my plans for Part II, mostly just attitudes and interactions between characters. When this happens, or when I find a song that fits them, I'll post it after the A/Ns during Part II. With some luck, I'll find one for Naruto and Sakura. I remember listening to a song that fit Ino before, but I think that one was lost to a fried hard drive a while back.

While I'm here, I've finished writing Part I and I'm now working on both Part II and the time-skip intermission. I may switch up the Sasuke VS Yue battle or I might just leave it alone. It is sort of back and forth, a knock down and get back up type of battle. Given the circumstances, I think its okay. A little bit on the dry side, but good for how they are at the time.

**Note-**

Madara will NOT be god-like in my fic, he will become a real god instead. I mean the guy took the best of the best from every Kage and survived being doused in lava twice! What makes it worse is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Wait until he pops out the Rinnegan version of his Susanoo. I've got a unique idea (I hope) of what Madara will do to himself later, but I will keep it to myself!

I just created an evil cliffhanger that won't appear for a while yet.

**Responses-**

**SuperNeos2:** Thanks. She's in a better place and she can walk fine now, so it's all good.

**xNinjaBlade45x:** As always, us writers are people who attempt to please the crowd. That's why no troll could ever write a story, because they live to piss everyone off!

**Sky Zephyrus:** Thanks, I'm sure she's better off now. No pain and she can do everything she could do in life and then some. Strange thing is, it feels like she wants me to feed her. I always felt when she was staring at my back, wanting food. I got that sensation now. Anyways, she will live on through Yue, who bears much of her personality later.

**9-tailed reaper:** Yamanaka 4... that's just sad. Then again, he is one of the many 'instant characters' that Kishimoto whipped up for Naruto. For all we know, he was Yamanaka 4 until one Christmas...

The 'Demon' term doesn't necessarily mean a person with a demon, demonic chakra or demonic blood. For instance, this fic's two demons are, as anyone could guess, Naruto and Yue. The three demons are Naruto, Sasuke and Yue. Naruto is the demon of chakra, Sasuke is the demon of potential and Yue is the demon of (garbled) I am a strict non-believer when it comes to infecting Naruto's harem with demonic chakra. That's like trapping a person in a room and filling it with Oxygen/Argon plasma , which can dissolve anything if tweaked properly. Think about it, the Kyubi's chakra destroys Naruto's cells, what would happen to someone who never dealt with that before? They would burn, scream and die a horrible death. A special body or chakra type is needed to withstand the Kyūbi's chakra. Heck, Sakura was left with a permanent (I think) scar from a brief touch of that chakra.

K3D (lol) is a long way away. I've always looked at that map and thought 'why haven't they gone beyond the edges?' I decided why and it isn't good... (dark, ominous music starts playing in the background. Vincent Price's laugh is heard as well, causing you to shiver)

Actually, that spoiler was completely unintentional. You wouldn't believe how much I have to alter my responses and ANs to remove spoilers. I just decided to leave it there to get people riled up a bit. (laughs evilly)

Honestly, most of the half breed stories are over the top or written by people whose first, second and fifth language wasn't English. Many people make the half breed, who is normally Naruto or Ino, far too powerful. They don't realize that the human blood would weaken the demon blood. Well, Yue is unique in that aspect, but she is an exception to the rule. She's a perfect, stable hybrid of human and demon.

Truth be told, half breeds are my favorite type of character. Possessing the power of two races, but shunned by their kin and most other races. They are very hard to write because the writer wants to favor one aspect of their heritage over the other, but that normally screws the story over.

I think that a half breed would be similar to Naruto, struggling with all their might to prove themselves worthy of acceptance. That's why Yue and Naruto get along, because they both know the hardship of getting recognized. Like I pointed out when I mentioned how I came up with Yue, her and Naruto were originally supposed to be lovers, but I downgraded it to very good friends. I would even go so far as to say that the two are almost soul mates, but that's Sakura's place. There will be points where Naruto and Yue could cross the line, but they don't.

While on the subject of hanyō, there will be mentions of others in Part II. As I said before, Yue is unique amongst half demons because she can use ninjutsu. Normally, hanyō can't use chakra because they don't produce spiritual energy, which is something a being with demon blood can't produce since they use yōki, the counter to spiritual energy. The Bijū are exempt from this rule. Yue is also exempt from the rule, but I'm not telling you how she can make chakra. Yet.

Also, I already knew the Kyūbi's name was Kurama. While I haven't released the new chapter in Kyūbi's Kit, Kurama gets an honorable mention.

**NaruSaku fan 100:** Thanks. Tell the 99 other NaruSaku fans to read this as well.

**Rocketshipping fan:** Duck head? That has to be the nicest insult I've ever heard directed at Emo-suke. Naruto does slightly better in the fight, but not enough to defeat Sasuke.

**thedarkpokemaster:** Sakura will fight Sasori, but he is going to be killed by someone else, and I don't mean Chiyo.

**Inuyonas:** Yeah, he's still going to run off with Pedo-snake. And Yue's interactions with Pain...Heh heh. They are far more interesting than you can even hope to imagine.

For the record, I'm going to use 'Pain' rather than his proper alias (Pein) because it makes more sense in the long run. Those with powerful Kekkai Genkai are often subject to the pain of being segregated and being treated like living weapons. Also, Nagato views his life as one pain followed by another, so Pain makes more sense. Also, Konan will survive Tobi's assault later on. I'm also removing that piercing on her lower lip. She looks better without it.

**DakLordK:** That's because I have high emotional control. I actually did break down for about forty minutes, but I took the reigns again and decided to release chapter 19 since my cat was the main inspiration for Yue. I felt like I owed it to her.

Thanks for the compliment on the jutsu. I've created a number of jutsu, both for this fic and others. I'm also going to completely deviate some time during the war, probably when Madara does his Sephiroth imitation. I'm also making the war larger and adding more members to the Akatsuki army because it all strikes me as being very DBZ. It is called a war, but it seems more like a few battles between small groups with others just standing around doing nothing. I'll keep them busy with more revived ninja and Zetsu clones.

And that's just the first part of the war...


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Fall to darkness

**Disclaimer: I own nothing other than OCs, jutsu, Kekkai Genkai, clans, villages and food I make. I think that covers it all. This fic is now dedicated to the memory of my cat, Willow. Rest in peace.**

Sasuke arrived at the north gate of Konoha. He figured it would be easy to leave, but he never expected _her_ to be there.

"What are you doing here, Sakura?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura swallowed hard. "I had a feeling you were leaving and this is the way you would have to go, so I waited..."

"Out of my way," Sasuke growled as he stepped passed her, leaving everything behind.

Sakura couldn't stop the tears. "Why? Why can't you talk to me, to any of us? We-"

"I told you already," Sasuke cut in, "I don't any of you or your help."

"You'll always hate us, won't you?" she asked. She looked around, memories flowing through her mind. "Before we met Kakashi-sensei, you got mad at me here."

"That happened?" Sasuke asked. Had Sakura been around during the Sannin's reunion, she would have recognized the signs of him being beyond her help.

"I remember..." she smiled slightly, "it all began after that though, team 7. The five of us went on many missions together. It was hard at times, and painful, but I enjoyed those times. We learned about each other and grew stronger together."

Sasuke grit his teeth, his fist clenching tightly. She knew nothing at all. They didn't grow stronger together. The team fragmented in two. While Sasuke did receive some training and the chidori from Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura eventually followed Yue and Jiraiya, gaining far more power than they deserved, all while Sasuke was left behind in Konoha to rot.

"Sasuke, even if you do get revenge for what happened to your clan, it won't bring anyone happiness," Sakura said.

"I know that already," Sasuke muttered, surprising Sakura, "I'm not like you, Naruto and Yue. I can't do what I have to do with you three behind me, it must be done alone. I decided long ago that I would kill Itachi. It is my sole purpose in life. I don't care for happiness or anything like that." He turned and looked back at her. "I can't be like you three!"

"Was it really that much better, being alone all the time?" Sakura pleaded, "we all heard how it was for you, so why go back?" Sakura took a moment to clear her throat, so the sadness wouldn't rob her of her voice. "I have friends and family, but if you leave, me and the others would be alone!" She had failed, her voice was cracking from the tears that rolled down her cheeks.

"Our time together is over. We all have separate paths to follow now," Sasuke declared, "mine is not with Team 7 or Konoha."

"You can't leave! You're my friend and..." she grit her teeth, gathering her courage, "I love you!" She took a breath. "If you stay here, you won't be alone anymore. We could be together as a family, the five of us. It was fun, so why go back to the pain and sadness? We can help you get Itachi, you will be ready to face him and we could help somehow. Just stay here in Konoha!"

"You really are annoying," Sasuke said with a smile. He then continued to leave.

Sakura went for broke. "If you take one more step, I'll scream and the guards will-"

Sasuke appeared behind her. "Sakura...thank you for caring, but..."

Thud!

"Sa..." the girl muttered before collapsing. Sasuke picked her up, placed her on a bench.

"This village, these bonds, I don't need them. I need power, something only Orochimaru can give me." And with that, Sasuke was gone.

_[Outside Konoha]_

"So you decided to come along, Sasuke-sama," Sakon greeted, "forgive us for how we were before. It was decided that you would be out leader if you came with us."

"Shut up. I don't care about that anymore. I just want out now," he didn't even look back at Konoha. There was no reason to look back at something he didn't need anymore.

_[Hospital, lower levels]_

Wump, wump, wump.

A steady humming/thumping noise filled the room as the air itself pulsated. The seals on the floors and walls had long since burned away and the cracks in the coffin were emitting a constant stream of lightning and fire. The chains were completely black, waiting for the right amount of force to shatter them like brittle bones. Even the door seals were starting to erode to the corrupted chakra leaking from the coffin, letting all of Konoha feel the evil of it. Most attributed it to one of their two 'demons,' just the wrong one.

_[Very early morning, gates of Konoha]_

"Why did I sign up for this? It's too early," Kotetsu groaned, "making us get the documents she forgot, so harsh." He was going to go on, but saw someone on the bench.

"What's wrong?" Izumo asked.

When they got close, Kotetsu decided to see what was going on. "Hey! Wake up! You'll only get sick if you sleep there."

Sakura woke up and memories of Sasuke leaving caused her to bolt up. When she saw the two chūnin, she told them everything that had happened. The two shared a glance, then quickened their pace as much as the stacks of forms would allow.

_[Hokage's office]_

A knocking was heard, prompting Tsunade to awaken and sit up. Kotetsu and Izumo walked in. Tsunade raised her hand and smiled in greeting. "Thanks for getting those."

"Godaime-sama! You were sleeping the whole time!" Kotetsu whined, having noticed the bit of drool on her chin.

"Hokage-sama, I have something I need to report," Izumo cut in over his friend.

"What?" Tsunade asked as she wiped her chin.

_[Later, same place]_

Not only did he have to deal with his mother's yelling this morning, now he was standing in the new Hokage's office. Why did he have to get summoned here so early in the morning? Troublesome blonde. It seemed blondes would be the death of him. Note to self: don't marry a blonde woman, or a woman who had a blonde in the family, or who was a friend. Scratch that, avoid all blonde women.

"Last night, Uchiha Sasuke left the village," Tsunade said, "he is heading towards the land of Sound."

"Why'd he leave?" Shikamaru asked. Him and Sasuke were never on any terms, but this was unexpected.

"Orochimaru made him," Tsunade stated.

"Wait! How did that traitor manage to do that? Did he threaten him or something?" Shikamaru asked. Again, he and Sasuke were nothing more than fellow leaf ninja, just like a few hundred others. To Shikamaru, Sasuke was moody, broody and troublesome to be around. Thankfully, the two preferred silence so they didn't talk much.

"We don't have time for that," Tsunade said, shoving all else aside, "I'm giving you your first mission as a chūnin."

"So I have to go and bring him back?" Shikamaru asked, figuring it would be easy if there were no enemies.

Tsunade nodded. "This mission needs to be completed quickly. You will run into enemy forces of unknown strength."

"What?" Shikamaru gasped. There just had to be enemies. Did she read his mind or something? The world had it out for him, or maybe some sadistic higher being just decided to make his life a living Hell of troublesome work.

"This sort of thing has happened before," Tsunade said, "Orochimaru probably sent some of his ninja as Sasuke's escort, so they will need to be eliminated."

Shikamaru was wondering why Sasuke was taken, not realizing that every reason he thought would keep Sasuke around were the reasons he was leaving. "I request a team of chūnin and jōnin."

"I can grant you one jōnin, but she isn't ready to move yet, might not be able to even after she awakens," Tsunade muttered.

"What?" Shikamaru shouted. He had a sneaking suspicion as to who the jōnin kunoichi was, but that could wait for a few moments.

Tsunade sighed. "Most chūnin and jōnin are outside of Konoha performing missions. I only have one available right now, and you know who it is. She will be considered part of the mission unless she is unfit for battle. You have thirty minutes to gather as many genin you feel are fit for this mission. After that, leave right away!"

"Troublesome, but I can't just leave a guy I know alone. I'll do what I can," Shikamaru said as he opened the door, "what exactly happened to her? Did it involve the destruction of Tanzaku castle?"

Tsunade tensed. The boy was smarter than he looked. "When you get back, I'll tell everyone exactly what happened," she promised.

Shikamaru sighed. "Good enough." He left.

_[Thirty minutes later, gates of Konoha]_

Shikamaru was tired and resting his hands on his knees. It didn't help that Naruto decided to rest his elbow on Shikamaru's back. When did he get tall enough to do that?

"We got a team, let's hope it works out," Shikamaru huffed. He hated running around so early in the morning. Actually, he just hated running around. He would do it to avoid chores, his mother, training, Ino and annoying women/girls though.

Neji noticed Lee's expression. "You have other worries. Leave this to us."

"Let's go! Follow me!" Naruto shouted, forgetting that he wasn't in charge.

"Naruto...I'm the squad leader," Shikamaru deadpanned. _'Wait! Why did I do that? My life would've been so much easier if I kept my mouth shut!'_

"Can you handle it?" Naruto asked, suspicion in his question, "you have always been very lazy..."

"He's got a point. Listening to Shikamaru's orders is kinda..." Kiba said, getting a woof of agreement from his dog.

"Shikamaru is a chūnin chosen by the council, so he has the leadership qualities required for this mission," Choji said, "we got to listen to him."

_'Why did that last part sound forced?'_ Naruto and Kiba thought.

"We need to know of the formation we will be travelling in and what strategies we will be using," Neji said, "I heard that there will be enemy contact as well as ambushes, so we need to be prepared."

"We are the ones doing the chasing, so the enemy can set up traps all over the place," Shikamaru warned, "we will get hit first a few times. Because of that, we will move in a way that will reduce the chances of that happening. If you break formation or act alone, we might all die." He then lay out the formation that they would assume and how they would monitor all angles.

After all that was through, Shikamaru decided to clear the air a bit. "Sasuke isn't my friend. He also doesn't mean too much to me personally, but he is a fellow ninja of Konoha, a comrade. That's why we will risk our lives to bring him back. It is the way of Konoha's ninja to never leave a fellow ninja in enemy hands when we can rescue them. I can't just go and take a nap or goof off, your lives and his safe return are my responsibility."

"Now you seem all chūnin-like!" Kiba said with a smile.

Neji decided it was time to get serious. "Check your equipment. We leave as soon as everyone is ready."

Once again, Shikamaru wanted to point out that he was the squad leader, but let it slide. Less trouble for him.

As Naruto checked his gear, he remembered how he had told Sakura that this wouldn't happen, how happy she became after hearing that. Why did he say that? If he knew this was going to happen...

"All done. Let's get going," Shikamaru ordered.

"Wait!"

The team turned to see Sakura standing there.

"I heard everything from the Hokage. I can't take you with us," Shikamaru said, "you already tried your hardest to convince him to stay and failed. We will most likely need to use force to bring him back. You can wait for us to come back with him."

"Sakura-chan,You were there when he left?" Naruto asked, shocked. If Sakura couldn't stop him...

"Naruto...Please, bring him back. I know you can do it. I-" she started.

"I'll bring him back for you," Naruto cut in, "promise of a lifetime." He said while giving her Guy's pose.

Sakura was stunned into silence as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Can you even keep such a promise?" Kiba asked.

"I always keep my promises!" Naruto playfully shouted back. "let's go!" The five left the village to retrieve Sasuke.

"Naruto-kun meant what he said. It was a promise with the nice guy pose, so it is sure to come true," Lee assured.

Sakura cried a bit harder. "I wanted him to bring Sasuke back to us, all of us. We can't end like this," Sakura whined, "I don't want any of my friends to disappear!"

Lee's mind halted for a moment before working again. _'Naruto-kun. Sakura-san cares about you too. If only you let her finish...'_

_[Deep in the forest]_

"Sasuke-sama, this is as good a place as any," Sakon stated as the Sound Four ringed their leader.

"What now?" Sasuke asked irritably. Weren't they supposed to be going to Orochimaru?

"Orochimaru-sama gave us a final order before we left," Sakon said.

"What the hell is it then?" Sasuke snapped.

"You are to die," Sakon stated with a smirk.

"So you're going to kill me?" Sasuke asked.

Sakon pulled out a bottle with a pill in it. "These are mind awakening pills. You must take it."

Sasuke sighed. "What is that stuff?"

"Your curse seal is level 1 right now. The pill will force you to achieve the second level of the curse seal, which all Sound Four have," Tayuya stated.

"But level 2 will eat away at you much faster than it does now. If we leave you alone now, it will consume you and that will be the end," Sakon said, "with the second level of the curse seal, you will most likely be as powerful as us. When you take this pill and the seal starts to strengthen, you will die a few minutes later."

Sasuke's fist tightened. "What happens after I die?"

"We're here to prevent that," Sakon said, "we will use a barrier to lessen the effect of the seal, reducing it from death to a coma." He put the pill bottle in Sasuke's hand.

"How skilled are you with these barriers?" Sasuke asked.

"We are Orochimaru-sama's elite guards and nobody gets by us!" Kidomaru said, "you can rely on us because our seals and barriers are second only to Jiraiya of the Sannin!"

Sasuke opened the bottle. "I can't die here." He took the pill.

The effect was almost immediate. Sakon quickly unsealed a coffin from the large scroll on his back as Sasuke fell to his knees. Jirōbō picked Sasuke up and put him into the coffin.

"Get ready!" Sakon shouted, "now!"

Black smoke and light were dragged towards the coffin as the four went through the seals. **"Shikokumujin!"** the four shouted as the darkness was sealed into the coffin. Once it was all in, Sakon placed extra seals onto the coffin, making sure it was completely sealed.

"First stage complete," Sakon said.

_[Konoha]_

"Why do you keep insisting on the operation Lee?" Tsunade asked, "if you don't go through with it and leave shinobi behind, you won't die."

"My life is about proving that someone like me, someone who can't use chakra can become a proper, respectable shinobi," Lee said.

"Even if it is a success, you could die long before you prove that," Tsunade stated.

"Being a shinobi is my dream," Lee said with a nice guy smile.

Tsunade thought of how great a Hokage her sensei must have been for the village to have so many strong children. She had a lot to live up to. "Alright! Let's go Lee! No turning back now!"

"Roger!" Lee cheered as he followed her.

_[Near the Sound Four's location]_

"So tired," Iwashi whined.

"It was quite a bit longer than I thought," Raidō stated.

A noise reached them, causing Shizune to shush them.

"I'm going to take a look. Raidō, cover me," Genma said as he walked forward. Raidō nodded and the two took off.

_[Nearby]_

The Sound Four stopped when they heard a sound. "Damn. Somebody found us," Sakon said.

"Wrong fairy boy, there are two," Tayuya lightly snapped.

"They're here!" Kidōmaru warned. The four scattered off to the sides, preparing a pincer attack. Unfortunately, Raidō was waiting for Sakon and Tayuya on their side.

"You... The ones who set up that barrier for Orochimaru..." Raidō muttered. He knew Genma had the other two, so it would be alright.

"Only Konoha lies behind you," Genma then noticed the coffin on Jirōbō's back, "what's in there? A kidnap victim for Orochimaru's twisted experiments?"

"Two jōnin, we got no choice but to go full force!" Kidōmaru ordered as his curse seal spread. The others followed suit, knowing that speed was key here. Unlike Sasuke, the mark spread over their entire bodies, not just part of it.

_[Behind the Sound Four]_

Akamaru whined and tried to hide in Kiba's coat. A moment later, Kiba smelled something too familiar to him.

"What do you smell?" Shikamaru asked.

"Blood. Lots of blood in front of us," Kiba stated.

Kiba glanced back at Shikamaru. "There were five ninja, one being Sasuke. He smelled odd and kind of muted, but it was him. All of them are going away from the blood."

"So he does have escorts," Shikamaru mused.

"Let's catch up!" Naruto shouted.

"Shut up Naruto! Shikamaru is the squad leader!" Kiba shouted back.

"Blood means that there was a fight. If we go to the source, we will have information, but we will also lose ground on Sasuke," Shikamaru explained, "or we could avoid the battlefield and continue after Sasuke."

"We are drawing close to our land's borders," Neji noted.

Shikamaru thought for a few moments, then decided. "We will follow Sasuke."

Naruto grinned. "That's what we came here to do!"

Shikamaru sighed. "Of course, that means the enemy will be on high alert now that they've run into someone willing to fight. They will be waiting for us, setting traps." He thought for a quick moment. "Use all your senses now. We have to catch up before they set up an ambush. If you notice anything out of the ordinary, check it out completely!"

"I'll use my new jutsu to knock down anything in my way!" Naruto shouted.

Kiba was couldn't believe that Naruto was growing stronger at such a high rate of speed. Before he could say anything, his nose was assailed from all angles. "Hey! The smell is all over the place!" he warned.

"STOP!" Shikamaru shouted. When they were all stopped, he pointed out a high class trap. They had no choice but to flank it and many others like it. Of course, this slowed them down considerably since they had to abandon the trees.

"So many damn traps!" Kiba muttered angrily.

"Most of it is rush work, so we can't be too far behind," Shikamaru stated.

"Naruto! Wire trap right in front of you," Kiba warned.

Naruto groaned in frustration as he lifted his foot to avoid the wire. Just as he was putting his foot down, he noticed another one and placed his foot down past it.

"Good work spotting that second wire, Naruto," Shikamaru praised, "figures they would set a few like that. From now on, make sure the shoddy work isn't hiding a proper trap. Of course, double traps must mean that they are resting now. Neji, look ahead."

Neji activated his byakugan and his increased vision range revealed the Sound Four resting in a clearing up ahead. "They're not too far in front of us."

"Time to get Sasuke!" Naruto cheered.

"Not so fast Naruto! You aren't the only one who knows a new jutsu," Kiba said.

"I got a new one too," Choji stated.

Shikamaru stepped forward. "Once I got a plan thought out, we will move in. Oh yeah, I also got new jutsu."

Neji felt left out. He had yet to perfect his new jutsu.

_[Sound Four]_

"This is taking up time we don't have," Sakon growled.

"Deal with it!" Tayuya snapped, "you know how much of our strength level 2 eats up."

Jirōbō flexed his arm, hating how sluggish it was. "It is troubling not being able to move properly."

"We had no choice. It was two jōnin. If we didn't use the seal, we would have been captured or killed," Kidōmaru stated.

Tayuya decided to bring up a small issue she had felt a while ago. "Back in Konoha...did you three morons feel anything odd?"

"Not really." Sakon smirked. "That time of the month?"

Tayuya scowled. "Why don't you tell me, drag queen?"

"No need to get like that," Jirōbō said, "what was it?"

Tayuya thought for a few moments. "Sort of like..like I was being tugged at or something, like I was being drawn somewhere."

"Where?" Kidōmaru asked.

"I don't know, everywhere I guess," Tayuya stated.

"You felt like you were getting pulled everywhere?" Sakon asked.

"Not that! I mean I felt it every moment we were in Konoha!" Tayuya snapped, "it felt like something was dragging me towards some place under the ground."

Sakon frowned. "Great. Another report to Orochimaru-sama, if we live to see him again."

Kidōmaru was about to say something when he felt some of his web trip wires tug at his fingers. He silently gave a signal to his teammates, warning them of intruders.

Sakon tossed his rigged kunai and a few moments later, they were rewarded with Shikamaru and Neji flying away from the blast.

"Whoa! I never thought you could kill two rabbits with one kunai!" Sakon cheered.

"Time! Wait a moment!" Shikamaru shouted, "we aren't looking for a fight! We are here to negotiate Uchiha Sasuke's release!"

Kidōmaru tugged on his webs, pulling the other three into the open. "What was with the flanking positions then?"

Kiba tossed a smoke bomb down to mask their presence.

"There's no escaping my webs. They are thinner than any wire and stronger than forged iron. They're all over the place and almost impossible to see. Give it up," Kidōmaru taunted.

"Damn. Triple traps," Shikamaru grunted, realizing that there had been more to the earlier traps than they thought. He never even heard of triple traps before. New techniques for Konoha if he made it out of this one.

"Got you guys in my we-!" Kidōmaru stopped mid sentence, feeling a sudden stiffening rush over his body.

"Captured," Shikamaru stated as his shadow swayed slightly, holding the shadows of the Sound Four. "Thanks for falling into such an obvious trap. Less troublesome this way."

"Thanks for falling into such an obvious trap," Sakon mimicked.

A shuriken flew at Shikamaru from behind, causing his concentration to waver enough to break contact with the Sound Four's shadows. With that opening, Jirōbō slammed his hands onto the ground and caused it to violently rupture in their direction. They didn't even get a chance to dodge as the crack split before them, then rose up to form a dome around them.

"Well...that was unexpected," Shikamaru groaned in sarcasm.

"Let us out of here!" Naruto shouted as he hit the wall.

"Out of the way!" Kiba shouted, then performed a Tsūga on the wall. He landed on the ground and watched as the damage reversed itself. "Hey!" he shouted while pointing at the now unmarked wall.

"...I'm not blind," Neji muttered angrily. "This isn't a normal stone prison..." He activated his byakugan and didn't like what he saw.

Shikamaru groaned again. "What's with that look?"

"Our chakra is being syphoned," Neji stated as he watched the chakra drawn from his body flow into the wall.

Within a few moments, most of the trapped ninja were barely able to stand. _'This is what I get for not trying to figure out their abilities,'_ Shikamaru thought as he slid down the wall and into a sitting position.

"DAMMIT!" Kiba roared, "we have to get out of here while we can!" He fed Akamaru a soldier pill. The dog then copied his owner and the two went wild on the walls, tearing into them in a mad attempt to break free. Afterwards, the two were even more tired.

"What the hell? Even the floor is fixing itself!" Kiba shouted.

Shikamaru surveyed the damage and noticed that some areas, mostly behind them, were repairing slower than the ones in front.

"Almost out of chakra," Kiba growled.

Naruto was attempting to do something, but it didn't seem to be working out.

Shikamaru moved closer to the wall. "Hey! I want to talk! We will give up on Sasuke, just let us out!"

"What the hell is he saying?" Kiba muttered.

"Team already falling apart?" Jirōbō asked, "too bad that you are all feeding me right now. Can't let my meal escape."

"Fine. Let me out!" Shikamaru shouted.

"The hell? You ditching us, you lazy coward?" Kiba roared.

Jirōbō started laughing. "The leader is the first to go! Don't they normally pick loyal people to lead? Konoha is trashier than I was told!" He calmed himself down. "You sure you just want out? With how easily you turned your back on Sasuke and your teammates, you would fit right in with us at Sound. Nah, I'll just kill you all."

"Damn! I thought you were better than this!" Naruto shouted, "let's go to the back of our little prison, I want to show you what I think of cowardly traitors."

Kiba snorted. "There is no back to this place, but I'll throw a punch or two."

"Shut up!" Choji snapped, then started to eat like it was going out of style.

"What's with the snack attack?" Naruto muttered to Kiba.

Kiba sighed. "Choji stuffs his face when nervous. He's useless now."

"I'll use Kage bunshin to bust us out," Naruto announced.

"Don't waste your chakra," Neji warned, "this place is a shell of chakra controlled earth. As you have seen, any damage is repaired quickly. To destroy this wall, we need one heavy attack."

"Great. Only Choji has more power than me, but he's stuffing his face," Kiba said.

"Neji. Sorry about earlier. Please use your remaining chakra to examine the wall behind you," Shikamaru said in a low tone.

"Shut up!" Naruto snapped.

"You shut up, Naruto!" Choji shouted, "remember his speech at the gates?"

"Quiet down. We need to be very quiet from now on," Shikamaru warned.

"So that's what you saw," Neji said as he saw the weak chakra in the wall.

"Throw a kunai at the wall," Shikamaru ordered, "Choji, ready?"

"YEAH!" Choji shouted. He then used Baika no jutsu.

"W-What's happening?" Naruto asked.

Neji sighed, wishing Naruto was smart enough to know on his own. "This wall is protected with a layer of chakra, remember? Shikamaru figured that, like everything, this jutsu has a weakness. That weakness is spots where the chakra layer is thin and weak. Didn't you see when Kiba and Akamaru struck the walls? Some repaired slower than others." As if to prove his point, he threw a kunai at a dent that had yet to seal. "That means that the chakra layer is weaker there. Shikamaru played the part of the cowardly traitor so he could learn where our enemy was because the weakest points would be on the side furthest from the user."

Naruto and Kiba marvelled at Shikamaru's brilliance. Neither wanted to openly admit that they had been fooled along with the enemy.

"Let's bust out!" Choji shouted, then barrelled through the wall, allowing his teammates to escape.

"Choji. You're the man," Shikamaru praised.

Jirōbō let his broken prison fall apart. "Three second rule."

"Let's thrash him!" Kiba roared as he and Akamaru moved forward.

"He's mine!" Naruto shouted as he started his charge.

"Don't move!" Neji shouted, "all our lost chakra had to go somewhere, I think it was him. Attacking him while he has unknown chakra levels with our depleted chakra would be foolish. If we tire out here, Sasuke will cross the border and the mission will end in failure."

"Damn," Naruto grunted. He had to get Sasuke back to Konoha, back to Sakura.

Kiba and Choji stood up and faced the man down. "Power for power. Leave him to us."

Jirōbō slammed his hands together. "You think you weak fools are a match for me? You're nothing more than tiny snacks to me." He then struck the ground with his hand, causing it to rupture again. In spite of preparing for it, some of the Konoha ninja were knocked of balance.

"Where did he go?" Kiba asked himself, then realized the enemy was behind them. The man hefted a massive chunk of earth, then tossed it at them. The genin scrambled to escape the attack, but Choji smashed through it with his Nikudan Sensha. While spinning, he drove himself at Jirōbō in an attempt to take the man out. Sadly, Jirōbō caught him and stopped the spin, then shoulder tackled Choji away and into Shikamaru.

Everyone went to attack him, but Shikamaru stopped them. "Everyone, save your strength!" he shouted, "you guys go ahead, me and Naruto will take care of him."

"Shadows again?" Jirōbō asked, "such a useless technique. Anyone with a single brain cell could figure out that technique at a glance. You think two of you, or even a hundred are enough to stop me? I pity your underlings, having to listen to such a pathetic loser."

"You...I'll-" Naruto started as he went to form a familiar hand seal.

"He's mine!" Choji shouted. He then rummaged around in his pouch and brought out a small bag. "You guys take these and go ahead."

"Choji...How?" Shikamaru asked.

Choji smiled. "I still got a trump card up my sleeve." Shikamaru was about to tell him not to use those, but Choji spoke first. "You guys are going ahead!"

"Hey! He's not someone you can take lightly!" Naruto shouted.

"Our mission is to get Sasuke back, not to beat this guy. If we don't get Sasuke, we are nothing more than what this guy called us: trashy underlings following a pathetic chūnin loser," Choji said.

Shikamaru and the others took the pills to replenish their strength, then departed. Before he left, Shikamaru told Choji that he better not die.

Jirōbō smirked. "Your 'friends' were able to leave you behind so easily. Do you know what that means?" When Choji said nothing, the Oto-nin went on. "It means that you are the loser of the group, the expendable weakest link. No matter how many gather, there is one loser that stands out more than the rest and he or she is left behind first."

Choji's angry glare turned into a smirk of his own. "So that's why your team was okay with leaving you behind, huh?"

Jirōbō's face twisted into a mix of hatred and disgust. "You! I'll grind you into dust!"

_[Konoha]_

Tsunade and Shizune stretched slightly. The operation on Lee had been a total success and had gone much faster than expected due to them incorporating elements of Kabuto's self healing jutsu. Not only did it speed up the surgery and Lee's recovery time, it also boosted the success rate of the complicated operation by 8%.

All in all, a good day.

Without warning, Shizune frowned. "Tsunade-sama, do you feel...odd?"

Tsunade was going to quickly answer her, but evaluated herself and found that there was a problem: her chakra levels. They were lower than they should be...and they were steadily decreasing. "Our chakra is being drained?"

Shizune nodded slightly and closed her eyes, trying to pinpoint the source of the drain. Tsunade followed suit.

"Hokage-sama!" a woman shouted as she ran up, "all the medics in the hospital are suffering from extreme cases of chakra exhaustion!"

Tsunade opened her eyes, worry shining in them. She had pinpointed where all the chakra was being dragged to and was worried: the sealing chamber under the hospital. The two medics went to the hospital.

Tsunade and Shizune arrived outside the staircase that led to sealed door. The two ANBU on guard had moved to the top of the stairs, saying that the drain from the room had been far too great next to the door. The two women now knew what they meant, their chakra was being sapped at a steady rate. Anyone below jōnin rank would already be tapped out by now.

Tsunade looked at the seal and nearly swore when she saw it had eroded away to the point where anyone who could mold chakra would be able to get rid of it. She was about to get rid of the seal, since it was useless now, when the drain was suddenly gone and the seal faded away completely. The medic in Tsunade took this as a bad sign and she carefully pushed the doors open, expecting to find a dead girl already in a coffin.

She was wrong. Yue was alive, as was the curse seal.

_[Orochimaru's lair]_

Orochimaru growled in pain as he spat up blood. He never knew that a body could reject him so badly. Could it be that the loss of parts of his soul made him weaker to the effects of his own jutsu? "I need Sasuke-kun! Where is he?"

"Orochimaru-sama, Sasuke-kun won't make it in time, nor is he anywhere near ready for the jutsu. We have others that you can use for now. It will even allow you to mold Sasuke-kun more to your preferences, given that he will train under you for three years," Kabuto stated, "if you wish it, my body is available."

"I want Sasuke-kun! I've waited too long for a sharingan!" Orochimaru shouted.

"The damage from the Sandaime and Yue was too great, you have no choice but to take a new body," Kabuto reasoned, "if you don't, you may die and lose everything you have worked for." Orochimaru threw up again, painting the bottom of his shower in more blood than before. "I will get you the strongest body possible for now and I will make sure Sasuke-kun arrives."

_[The chase]_

The two teams had lost members, both teams being cut in half. Sakon and Tayuya stopped, wondering if Sasuke was finally coming out of his coma. While that wasn't true, the brief stop was long enough for Naruto, Kiba and Shikamaru to catch up.

"What the fuck were those two dumbasses doing?" Tayuya growled, "they let those little shits right past them!"

"Finally got you," Naruto panted as he held a kunai at the ready.

"No! I got you!" Sakon shouted as he moved forward.

"Fast!" Kiba shouted as he watched the strange ninja fly at them. Naruto threw his kunai at the man, hoping to delay him. Sakon dodged and used a jutsu to speed up his arm's movements, planning on punching the three into misshapen piles of flesh in a few seconds. Kiba and Shikamaru took the blow early, sensing the incredible amount of chakra Naruto's jutsu was made up of. Kiba and Shikamaru vanished, proving to be henged clones of Naruto.

_'That one fairy boy is going to hit must also be a clone too. I'm not helping him at all. Heck, I'll praise that kid if he kills the queer, then I'll gut him alive,'_ Tayuya thought as she watched her teammate's fight.

Naruto thrust his Rasengan forward, but Sakon grabbed his arm and deflected it away from his body. "I don't know what that thing is, but a long range jutsu is useless if it doesn't leave your hand," Sakon stated, not knowing that it was actually a melee jutsu.

_'Kiba! Where the hell are you?'_ Naruto thought.

"**Tsūga!"**

'Naruto' was struck from behind by a drill-like jutsu, destroying him and putting Sakon in the path of the attack. Realizing that he had been fighting clones the whole time, Sakon dropped under the attack and let it fly passed him.

Tayuya's eyes widened. "The fuck! They lined us up!" she shouted. She reached down to grab the coffin and run. Sakon jumped back towards her in case she proved too incompetent to lift the coffin. Tayuya felt a stiffening in her body and glanced down, seeing the shadow. _'He caught me!'_ she thought as she looked back to Shikamaru and realized this was the plan the whole time. She heard a thump beside her and caught a flash of the dog ninja grabbing the coffin. She felt her body lurch, moving into the path of Sakon's flying form. _'Oh shit, I'm going to smell like him now. That's no way to die.'_

"What are you doing?" Sakon shouted as he saw his teammate move to defend the leaf-nin. He couldn't even change direction now, meaning that traitor could slip a kunai into him without a problem.

They impacted and Tayuya quickly shoved him off. "I was being controlled by that shadow brat," Tayuya hissed, "use your fucking eyes for something other than undressing guys." Sakon chose to keep quiet since he had been in the wrong, this time.

The three leaf-nin went to leave, Naruto now carrying the coffin. Sakon activated his curse seal and launched himself after them. "Akamaru!" Kiba shouted to his dog and got a bark in return, "finish up with that and get moving!"

"Stop whining you bitch!" Sakon shouted, scaring the small dog. Akamaru jumped away, but tripped over a branch and fell within range of the delayed exploding tag. Kiba redirected himself to his dog as the tag went into its final stages, with Sakon right where they wanted him.

BOOM!

"Kiba! Akamaru!" Shikamaru shouted back, realizing the two had been caught in the shock wave from the blast, if not the blast itself. At the very least, they severely injured Sakon with that trap, meaning one less pursuer after Naruto and Shikamaru.

"Fucking bastards!" Tayuya shouted as she rushed at them.

"She's coming," Naruto muttered to Shikamaru, who felt more guilt pile on top of him.

Tayuya stopped, a terrified look on her face. "You...Kimimaro?"

In a flurry of motion, the two leaf-nin were kicked aside and the newcomer caught the coffin and landed a fair distance from them.

"I never thought that they would have reinforcements," Shikamaru muttered, "I'm sorry Naruto."

"No need for that," Naruto said as he stared at the new guy, "now we have to get it from both of them."

"Tayuya!" the man snapped, causing said girl to flinch, "you were told to come back as fast as you could. Why are you still in this little land, and where are the others who once made up the Sound Five?"

"W-Why? Your b-body can't..." Tayuya stuttered in fear.

The man sighed. "It isn't my mind that moves my body now, but my undying will to serve Orochimaru-sama."

_'Even with one foot in the grave and the other slipping over the edge of the coffin, he still moves for him,'_ Tayuya thought. She could never voice it because of what he did to her and the other four. No matter what, she could never acknowledge someone unless they were stronger than her, able to make her fear for her own life.

"It feels as if I have come into contact with a supreme life form, much like Orochimaru-sama. Perhaps it is Orochimaru-sama that is giving me strength now," Kimimaro said as he placed a hand on the coffin, "this vessel is needed by Orochimaru-sama, so I will bring it to him." His eyes shifted over to Tayuya. "I won't tell him of your incompetence either."

"A-At least there is only two bits of trash left to burn," Tayuya stated, feeling a bit of pride in herself. Maybe Kimimaro would ease up on his KI a bit?

He scowled slightly. "Two? What about that one behind you?"

Tayuya's eyes widened slightly as she suddenly felt the presence behind her. She turned, far too slowly, and received a staggering blow to her head. She jumped away to put some distance between her and the attacker.

"Yue?" Naruto gasped as he saw the hanyō.

**A/N~**

Good place to end it for now. I'm skipping the Kimimaro VS Gaara and Lee battle since it is unchanged. There will be a Yue VS Tayuya battle, which will partially reveal Yue's curse seal and its ability. When Yue catches up to Sasuke, all of her curse seal will be revealed. Here's a tip: her seal and Sasuke's are sort of similar. Unlike Sasuke's, Yue's seal gives her more benefits. Of course, it does have some major disadvantages later on.

And sorry for the slow releases lately. Winter up here in Canada hasn't really been all that great. Ground hogs have decided that winter will end early. Don't need them since we haven't had six weeks of proper winter anyways! I've felt horrible this whole time from a cold and adopting a diurnal sleep cycle doesn't help a nocturnal person recover well. I'm used to falling asleep at 4AM and waking up at 12PM. Add to it that I finally get enough energy and clarity to post and my internet won't let me log into to do so. And to top it all off, as if I haven't been put down enough already, I got a bacterial infection in my lungs, making it painful to breath deeply. This is common with me and it will be gone soon, but it fucking hurts! Due to all this, I haven't fully checked this chapter out, so excuse any errors for now. I'll fix them up later.

**-Responses-**

**xNINJABLADE45x:** Updated.

**SuperNeos2:** Honestly, Kakashi was a total failure as a teacher throughout Part I. The only person he ever really taught was Sasuke. He tried to teach Naruto the chidori, but I think he knew from the beginning that Naruto couldn't use it, but he didn't know what else to teach him. He never really bothered to relate to the boy, so he couldn't help him much. As for Sakura, I don't think she received any real training during Part I other than tree climbing and the medical training near the end. She might have done some sparring practice at some point or something, but I don't think Kakashi was involved at all.

This allows Kakashi to have a sort of fresh slate in Part II. While he was a failure as a teacher, he will never fail as a teammate. He will redeem himself, just like in canon, by fighting alongside them and training Naruto.

As for Sakura's outburst, she's able to see more than just Sasuke now, so she saw how her and Naruto were being slighted by their 'jōnin-sensei.' Even the other jōnin, Asuma particularly, pointed out how bad a teacher Kakashi was during the tournament. He was right, Yue would have been a better sensei for Team 7 if she had been available. By the way, this is a hint to a soon to be revealed event!

**Sky Zephyrus:** Slightly different. Instead of just herself, it is for the team as well. I guess you could say that her feelings for Sasuke are more like familial love rather than romantic love. She's still confused over the type of love she feels for him.

**DarkLordK:** Dedication? I call it a vent for my insanity. If I didn't write stories or throw together plots for them, I'd wind up in a rubber room with a nice, tight jacket because of the mad rampage of demonic, fast breeding plot bunnies in my head. As for hand seals, I tend to skip over that. Many of Yue's jutsu do not require hand seals, like her personal katon. I do believe the term for jutsu like that is 'Hiden Jutsu.' Now that I think back, most people don't even bother mentioning specific seals, just that hand seals have been performed. I've only read two fics where the seals required are mentioned.

Uh, Madara did the Sephiroth impression when he used his meteor jutsu. It's canon.

I'm adding more Akatsuki, well, more clones and revived ninja, because the Akatsuki army is tremendous, but very little of it is seen. Since I'd say that the alliance has roughly a thousand or so ninja, I'll make Akatsuki have more than that. The White Zetsu army will pretty much take over the field. To even the odds, the Alliance will receive backup in the form of more soldiers, not ninja, and a new division: the Specialist Unit. I will speak no more on the subject since Sasuke is standing behind me with his sword primed for the kill.

**Inuyonas:** Uh, I said Sephiroth as in Final Fantasy VII, not Goku from DBZ. In the manga, Madara recently called down some meteors with a jutsu. The whole DBZ thing in Naruto is that some attacks are mimicking DBZ attacks. A good example is Naruto's Rasenshuriken, which seems like a wind based, takes-less-than-a-few-episodes/volumes-to-charge ninjutsu version of Goku's Spirit Bomb.

As for Yue destroying Sasuke...you may have to wait for that fight. I want it to be so horribly one-sided that Sasuke attacks Orochimaru to absorb him and his power, not to save himself from being taken over before he kills Itachi.

**God Emperor of GAR-halla:** Uh, that was just the coffin being unable to completely seal her. She only escaped during this chapter. The whole breaking coffin thing was Yue trying to reject the seal and advancement that had been forced on her. She never wanted the seal and she definitely didn't want it strengthened, so she tried to escape the coffin. Sad thing is, she needed the seal's power to escape. The more she struggled, the faster the seal matured.

I don't need inspiration for my fic since I've already planned out most of the future events. I've already taken inspiration from many sources, which I will point out later if I have to.

**Firestar001:** Thanks.

**Thedarkpokemaster:** Hmm. I don't know if she loves him like that. More like interested in him enough to get jealous of girls and women being close to him. I may angle in for Sakura to finish off Sasori, but I may put that into the war. When they first meet, Sasori is too powerful for Sakura to defeat. Without Chiyo around, Sakura would have died very quickly. With Stigma around, Sasori finds himself dead sooner than expected.

Who's Stigma? Wait and find out.

**9-tailed reaper:** I think I can relate to hanyō because I was similar during my entire school life. I fit into two or three different cliches, but I was never allowed into them. Because of that past experience, I can create very well done hanyō characters.

You may have to wait for the beat down. I decided to create a cliff hanger of epically painful proportions.

Sakura will actually get something that basically makes her into a 'she-tank' during the war. Scariest part of that? She-tank is a word that LibreOffice recognizes! Another thing, if she can level a small clearing at 15, imagine what she can do when she's older.

Actually, truth be told, I'm extremely good at writing up female characters. The best I've written so far are Kazeneko/Kuroishi Yue and Arai Lucia, the female OC from The Greatest, which I decided to delay the release of. While it is an amazing fic, (in my opinion) I have to at least get my other fic up to the end of the chūnin exams before I start posting it. If I do post it while my current projects are going, it will be a slowly updated project.

Best parts of my next fic? Here's a list.

-Naruto doesn't kiss Sasuke (that part was just wrong! It birthed the NaruSasu pairing! Ugh...)

-accidental kiss between two girls (Kiba approves! I have a feeling reviewers will too XD)

-Naruto not having a blinding crush on Sakura

-Naruto having a childhood friend who cares for him

-Naruto has more friends from the academy (Kiba, Lucia and Hinata)

-Naruto is a little more accepted by Konoha (well, by seven civilian girls anyway)

-taller, more mature looking Naruto

-an 'aunt' who cares for him (Rin)

-a weak bloodline OC (Lucia)

-exotic, dark skinned girl (Lucia again)

-Naruto notices Hinata during Part I (may or may not notice her crush. He's still stupid)

-Naruto gets 3-4 hot ladies (Sakura, Ino and Lucia for sure. Maybe Hinata too)

-More of an asshole than normal Sasuke (Is this even possible anymore? He's reached such a low that I created a new term for him: the Sassu-hole!)

-Appearance of a great, powerful evil that may be a greater threat than all of Akatsuki

Basically, I granted Hiruzen's wish for Naruto to be loved, respected and cherished during his childhood, even thought it is only a small amount of people. Too bad the two pranksters love giving him, and many other men, nosebleeds.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Drawing to a close

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

Yue was crouched down on the branch that Tayuya had been on a moment before, letting her claws dig into the bark. Her coat and shirt were destroyed, replaced with a sleeveless gray hoodie. She wore two heavy belts around her waist, Yin and Yang on one with a single scroll on the other belt.

"So another piece of trash made it through?" Tayuya growled. Kimimaro didn't say anything, figuring Tayuya could deal with these three while he left with Sasuke.

Yue muttered something under her breath.

"What was that? Cat got your tongue?" Tayuya taunted.

Yue glared up at her, jagged bolt-like marks spreading across the right side of her jaw from her curse seal. "I'm bringing him back."

"A curse seal..." Kimimaro muttered to himself, "Tayuya, kill these three while I cross the border with Orochimaru-sama's future vessel. That is the only reason I didn't kill you on sight."

Tayuya didn't get a chance to say anything, fear having stolen her voice. She had a feeling that she would die today, regardless of her killing these brats. She pulled out her flute, ready to fight her opponents.

Naruto was royally pissed off and letting the whole world know it, so Shikamaru silenced him as he thought up a plan. He started thinking of what they had to work with. A genin, a tokubetsu jōnin with something similar to that Sakon guy and himself, a chūnin who specialized in cloud watching, shogi and traps. "Naruto, Yue. Move according to my orders and we can get to Sasuke," Shikamaru stated in a commanding tone. He then explained the plan.

"Time to sweep the table," Tayuya growled as she got ready for anything.

"Three VS one! We can do this!" Shikamaru cried as he, Yue and Naruto went straight for the redhead.

"Three or thirty! Doesn't matter how much trash you pile up, I'll burn it all!" Tayuya stated.

Shikamaru arrived first, his kunai clashing with Tayuya's flute. "Now!" he ordered the other two.

"Here I come!" Naruto shouted.

Tayuya hated to admit it, but she stupidly watched as the boy flew way passed her. She even stood there, staring back at the blonde with a dumbfound expression while Shikamaru cornered her. Then it clicked. "Fucking cheaters!" she roared, "you tricked me! How in the blue hell is that teamwo-!" She quickly dodged the slow moving shadow, moving to a completely different tree.

"Damn, I thought this would be easier," Shikamaru said with a tired smile, "at least Naruto and Yue got by and- Wait, where did Yue go?"

To answer his question, a fireball slammed into the tree Tayuya was in, forcing her to abandon it and go even further backwards. Yue landed next to Shikamaru and glanced at him. "Go with Naruto. Your jutsu are too slow to catch her. It will just sap your chakra to fight her up here in the trees." She shot a glance to where Naruto and that strange guy went. "Besides, that white haired guy is something else, possibly too much for Naruto alone."

Shikamaru wanted to protest, but he knew that he was in rough shape. If he were to follow Naruto, he may have enough chakra to help his friend out. She was right too. Stretching his shadows on these trees would exhaust him. "Don't go doing anything stupid like dying on me," Shikamaru warned.

Yue smirked slightly. "Whatever you say, Shidō-sha. I'll ki- capture this girl, then catch up to help carry Sasuke back home."

Shikamaru wanted to bring up what she was going to say, but decided to let it slip for now. He took off in the same direction as Naruto.

"Like I'd let you!" Tayuya shouted as she jumped to follow the boy, but Yue appeared before her and knocked her back onto the branch with a kick.

Yue landed and drew both her swords. "Kazeneko Yue, tokubetsu jōnin of Konoha. I suggest you draw a second weapon."

Tayuya snorted. "Why would I need a second weapon? You're nothing more than a speck of dirt before me." Yue sighed, then vanished. Tayuya had a brief moment to block a kick to her head with her flute. She then understood the reason why Yue suggested another weapon when the swords swiped at her head. She shoved the girl away, taking advantage of Yue's low weight so she avoided a scalping. _'Wait... tokubetsu jōnin? Shit! I thought it was just a bunch of genin and a green chūnin!'_

Yue fell back almost ten feet, slowing herself with chakra. Once she settled, pain bolted through her body from the seal on her neck. Yue grunted as she shook slightly from the pain. The marks crept another inch across her face, covering her entire cheek and barely reaching her eye. She could also tell that it covered half her neck and most likely part of her right shoulder. It was the most disgusting thing she had ever felt.

Tayuya took note of it and smirked. "A fuck up like that Mitarashi woman, huh? Can't handle the curse seal. Maybe if it was a level 2, you could actually do something without pain, but it is still a shitty level 1 seal."

"Level 2, level 1? What are you talking about?" Yue asked as the pain started to fade. It annoyed her that it came and went in waves. She had heard from Anko-sensei about the seal and its problems, but never realized that it would be this bad. Where was Kakashi when you needed a seal? Probably thinking up new ways to train only one of his students, lazy porn addict.

Tayuya thought about it for a moment, then decided to indulge her victim a little before scattering her all over the forest. "Orochimaru developed a pill and jutsu to make a person's curse seal stronger. It's called-"

"Shikokumujin," the hanyō finished. When Tayuya stared at her slack jawed, Yue went on. "I had to go through that jutsu because the curse seal was killing me. I guess that means I'm also a level 2."

_'I've got to finish this before she masters the curse seal!'_ Tayuya mentally shouted as her curse seal spread over her body. She put the flute to her lips and started to play, having heard about this girl's extreme weakness to both genjutsu and sound. With the curse seal, it could be ten times worse.

One moment, Yue was in full control of herself and everything was fine. The next moment, she couldn't move anything other than her head and tail. Her only companion was a hauntingly hollow song from Tayuya's flute. She felt a strange stinging sensation where the curse seal was and ignored it until it became painful and numb at the same time. She shook her head to rid herself of it and felt an odd tugging on her face.

Splat!

Yue looked down and her eyes widened when she saw a chunk of bloody, burnt flesh. It was a piece of her face! She screamed as the numb feeling spread further.

Outside of the illusion, Tayuya smirked as the girl screamed and twitched in agony. This would last for as long as she could keep up the song, since the girl was pathetic with her chakra control.

"_**What is this?"**_ a rough voice asked.

The hanyō, now missing half of her face and some of her shoulder, looked around to find the source. As far as she could see, it was just her in this illusion.

"_**So we are trapped. How annoying. One such as us shouldn't fall prey to such a pitiful trick,"**_ the voice stated in like in a manner that made Yue think of a girl who believed herself to be great, **_"that seal is annoying, but it may have saved you by awakening me. With this, maybe that light will vanish and allow me to sleep again."_**

Yue was going to ask what was going on, but a pulse of red light filled the area.

Tayuya was about to alter the illusion, hopefully to bring about louder, more tortured screams, but a wave of red chakra burst off the girl and she slumped to the ground, free of the genjutsu.

"Damn!" Tayuya hissed, "you freed yourself with a massive burst of chakra?"

Yue looked down at her hands. _'That wasn't chakra, it was pure yōki!'_ She had no time to dwell on that voice or anything because Tayuya put the flute to her lips and was about to play a new tune. Yue jumped forward and threw Yin at the girl's foot, forcing her to abandon her song and move to avoid being pinned. Yue landed and took Yin back in her right hand and jumped after Tayuya, deciding a close range battle was the redhead's weakness.

When the hanyō drew close and started up a taijutsu battle, Tayuya found herself fighting her worst enemy. She mostly focused on summoning and genjutsu, not fighting at close range. She didn't even carry any weapon other than her demon flute, a mistake she hoped she would never repeat. Even so, her flute stood up to the twin swords quite well, only taking scratches and nicks. She blocked one blow and saw an opening, she shoved her flute forward and slammed it into Yue's throat. With the attacks ceased, Tayuya jumped to another branch and went through the seals. **"Kuchiyose no jutsu!"**

Three ogre-like beasts rose up in front of Tayuya. Yue took one look at them and knew she was in trouble now. One had a club, the other had claws and the third...it didn't have anything, not even arms.

Tayuya started to play on her flute and the monsters began to move.

Yue barely jumped out of the way of the club wielding creature's downward strike. Without warning, claws tried to strike her from the side while she was in mid air. She slammed her heel into its hand, spinning her away from its weapon. _'Got away!'_ Yue thought.

Bam! Yue was kicked from the side by the armless one and she flew into a tree, crashing into it painfully and sliding down to a branch.

Tayuya landed nearby and smirked. "Looks like my Doki are too much for you and your faulty curse seal."

_'She has weak taijutsu and probably weak ninjutsu too. She needs these Doki things to fight taijutsu based opponents like me. If I open a gate...'_ Yue's neck twitched in pain, the curse seal reminding her of its presence. _'Scratch that. This damn seal is preventing me from doing anything!'_

"_**Why not use it then?"**_

Yue blinked. It was that voice again. She wondered what would happen if she channeled chakra into the seal. Would it spread like this girl's seal? Would it make her strong enough to defeat her? Or would it just hurt even more? It was too risky to try.

Tayuya went to play again, but Yue interrupted her. "You're really good at that. Since it controls those things with your songs, it must have taken forever to learn."

"This song is far more complex than any song you could ever find in this world," Tayuya stated, "nobody has ever heard it and lived."

Yue sighed. "Anybody would let Shinigami take them if they were to hear a song of such loneliness and despair."

Tayuya was stunned. The girl's hearing might make her weak to the illusions Tayuya could weave with sound, but it seemed the hanyō was on her way to decoding the melody used to control the Doki. "Time for you to hear the last song you will ever hear," Tayuya said, then started to play a new song, sending her Doki forward.

The Doki's mouths tore open and these strange creatures came out and went straight for Yue. She jumped up and backwards, launching a small fireball through one of the serpents. The jutsu flew through it without leaving a mark. "Damn! Ghosts!" Yue grunted as she hit a tree and sprung off it, trying to evade the snakes. Once more, her dodge was interrupted by armless, its snake biting into her arm and ripping away some ghost-like apparition of it. She created a few shadow clones and destroyed them, using the expelled chakra clouds to hide herself from Tayuya.

_'Distance means nothing. You are weakening from my jutsu and that curse seal. I will catch you soon,'_ Tayuya thought as she kept playing her song.

Yue was pinned down. Her right arm was still numb from her own jutsu, but at least she could move it now. She had obviously recovered slightly while in that coffin, but not enough for her to fight properly. It was difficult enough to create a few shadow clones while being unable to feel with her hand. She put Yin away, knowing that being unable to feel the edge catch anything would just make the blade a hindrance. She had to focus on using her dominant left arm in this fight. With her chakra levels dropping and being eaten, she might actually be able to beat this girl and then pass out from chakra exhaustion. Looks like Shikamaru and Naruto would have to carry Sasuke back on their own.

This would be easier if she had more weapons, but she only had Yin, Yang and Kubikirihōchō with her, the other weapons had been scattered all over the place after she got out of that coffin. With a limited arsenal and time, she had to get to Tayuya and either steal or break her flute. She had to focus, because she had a leg up on her opponent. Her advantage: Yue was too stupid to know when to quit, when she was beat or how to lose.

The hanyō jumped straight at Tayuya, blade held behind her shoulder for a hard slash. Tayuya played a melody to direct the armless Doki, which the girl seemed to have trouble with, to circle around and wait for the girl to dodge into the air, all so a direct hit could land on the cat. As predicted, Yue dodged the two by springing off a branch, straight into the air. Then the melody changed, making the armless one send its worm straight up at the girl.

Yue smirked, drew Yin and threw the sword at Tayuya, missing by a meter. Tayuya looked back in time to see a flaming pellet pass through the worm and slam into the armless Doki, blowing its upper body apart. Tayuya quickly redirected the club Doki to strike the descending girl, but Yue twisted around in the club, all to land on her hands and feet.

"Fucking cat! How many lives do you have left?" Tayuya shouted.

Yue actually thought for a moment. "I'd say eight or seven. I really need to start keeping track of things that important."

"I'll make it zero!" Tayuya put the flute to her lips and played.

The claw Doki stabbed at Yue's back, but Yue dodged under it and kicked at its elbow, temporarily knocking it off balance. The claw Doki regained its balance, then jumped out of the way. Yue jumped off the branch a good amount of time before the club smashed it apart from beneath.

"H-How?" Tayuya stuttered.

"Simple. I may not know what the notes actually are, but I possess absolute pitch." Yue's cat ears twitched. "No matter what song you play, I'll know what those things are going to do before they do."

Tayuya realized that her back was to a wall. She had no choice now but to finish this cat off in an instant. If she didn't, the leaf-nin would knock her out and drag her back to Konoha for interrogation. Since they weren't expected to return, none of them bothered to bring suicide pills with them. Even if she didn't know anything important, she knew enough to cost Orochimaru a few of his bases, specifically the one he was currently in.

Yue used the branches, aiming for the springy ones for speed boosts, as she made her way over to Tayuya. She landed on a long branch about two thirds of the way up and catapulted herself at the branch where Tayuya was.

Tayuya watched as the girl hit the branch next to her sword, grabbed it to use as a post and swung her other blade at Tayuya, stopping it a hairsbreadth from her neck. "Caught you," Yue said triumphantly.

Riiip!

Yue had only a moment to register that something changed, right before six worms swarmed the branch. She dodged, only to get crossed by two worms, draining a fair chunk of her physical energy. Thankfully, Yue had lots of physical energy. Sadly, she still slammed into a tree trunk and fell into a seated position.

"_**You actually forced me to use this, my second level curse seal,"**_ the now horned girl with brown skin and pale pink hair growled, **_"now you will die, trash!"_** She got close to her prey and commanded her Doki over, wanting to wear this girl's blood as her funeral attire.

_'I'm finished.'_ Yue looked down at her shivering left arm, not being able to move it any more than that. _'Her jutsu and this seal are draining me too much. It hurts too much to move.'_

"_**Stop fighting the seal and fight her with it."**_

It was that voice again. Would she be mocked by some insanity fabricated voice in her last moments?

"_**I am not insanity. Explaining would take too long. You know what you need to do."**_

Yue knew what it meant, but doing that might just kill her faster.

"_**We'll die anyway if you do nothing. Do what we do best. At the worst, you'll go out with a mighty hiss rather than a pathetic mewl."**_

Tayuya felt a warmth inside of her. Even if Kimimaro gutted her when she showed her face, at least some of the blood on her carcass wouldn't be her own. She played the notes to make her Doki kill the girl.

The tree exploded as twin black spikes lanced out and struck the Doki through their heads, destroying them. Tayuya flinched back in fear as a jet black hand raced at her. She stepped back, but it still seized her by the neck and squeezed hard, then lifted her up with ease.

The hanyō stood up as her hair lengthened and changed colors. Tayuya could only gurgle as she tried to beg for her life. That ceased once the girl's eyes locked onto her own, making Tayuya feel like she was staring into the gates of Hell.

"_**So this is my curse seal?"**_ the girl asked nobody in particular.

"Haugh?" Tayuya managed around the icy hand wrapped around her neck. She could breathe, but it was very difficult.

Yue looked into her eyes again, making Tayuya attempt to shy away. _**"It was my only option. I had to go for broke or I would have died."**_ She was silent after that, staring at her captured enemy, no, prey.

That wasn't right either. Tayuya was her _victim_, nothing more.

Tayuya felt something she hadn't truly felt for anyone other than Orochimaru and Kimimaro: fear. This girl scared her to no ends. Her eyes spoke of a slow murder that involved pain never before imagined even by the wickedest of minds. Tayuya felt a tear roll down her cheek, the best begging she could manage in her current state.

Yue seemed to notice it and some semblance of her humanity returned, causing the grip to relax slightly. Tayuya was about to free herself and run when she felt a familiar dragging sensation, except it was many times stronger than before. It was coming from the hand wrapped around her neck.

"Y-You're the one...from Kono...ha," Tayuya muttered as she felt her strength leave her. The curse seal receded and her weakness tripled. When it was obvious that she was no threat to anyone, she was tossed aside to rest on the branch.

Tayuya's flute was taken from her. _**"Just in case,"**_ Yue stated as she slipped the instrument through a loop in her belt. With that, Yue jumped off the branch, leaving Tayuya to faint from relief and exhaustion. The girl fell off the branch, her body falling to the ground with a painful sounding crack. Tayuya never noticed because the easing of KI, her rapid loss of chakra and her injuries had put her into a coma.

_[Valley of the End]_

Naruto landed atop the head of Hashirama Senju and looked over to the one on Uchiha Madara's head, Uchiha Sasuke.

"What are you doing?" Naruto shouted, hoping that his friend was being forced somehow.

Sasuke turned around, scaring Naruto with his partial transformation. "So it's you this time, huh? Didn't I make it clear enough with her, or are you two really that stupid?"

Naruto remembered how he promised he would bring Sasuke back to Sakura, all to make her smile again.

"Kukukuku."

Naruto flinched and his eyes shot to Sasuke, the source of the Orochimaru-like chuckle. He even looked like him!

"What's with that pained face? Could it be that she wants nothing to do with you now that I'm gone?" Sasuke asked.

"Why are you like this now?" Naruto asked as his heart shattered a bit at a time, hoping that bringing him back would get rid of this problem before Sakura heard him.

Sasuke glared at Naruto with his one transformed eye. "Why are you even here? My path, the path to power and revenge, lays with Orochimaru. I'm done with Konoha, its games and its chains of weakness. Leave me alone and enjoy playing ninja in that pitiful village."

"Shikamaru, Lee, Choji, Kiba and Neji, they all risked their lives and dreams to bring you back. They are all fighting, all of them getting injured, all to bring you back!" Naruto said as he felt anger well up in him.

"And?" Sasuke asked, "I'm supposed to care about wasted efforts?"

Naruto leapt at Sasuke, the Kyūbi's chakra altering his appearance as he went.

"How dare you ignore their effort!" Naruto shouted, "you never turn your back on a comrade!"

Naruto landed on Sasuke and delivered a single punch to the boy's jaw, making him bleed. Sasuke spat some of the blood on Naruto's face.

"How do I get stronger staying with people who were defeated by the Sound Four? They are beneath me, so they are useless," Sasuke said, "no matter what you do, I'm going to Orochimaru."

Naruto couldn't take it anymore. "All Orochimaru wants is to take you over! He isn't ever going to let you kill Itachi! If you are eaten by him, I can't bring you back!"

"I don't care what happens to me or what I have to do," Sasuke stated, "as long as Itachi dies to my hands, it is all worth it."

"I just told you that he'll never let you near Itachi!" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke released another creepy chuckle as images of his fight on the rooftop flew through his mind. Now that he had the curse seal, that stupid ball jutsu of Naruto's didn't bother him anymore. "We were stopped last time, so let's end it properly this time."

Naruto realized what Sasuke was talking about. "I don't want to fight, not like this."

"Who cares about you?" Sasuke asked as he seized Naruto's throat. He then forced himself onto his feet as he held Naruto, keeping the boy on his knees. He released Naruto, then kicked him away. The blow sent Naruto flying off the stone head and down into the river with a large splash. Sasuke marveled at his new power, then felt a sting of pain as the seal bit into him. He made it recede, figuring he wouldn't need anywhere near his full power to defeat Naruto. Then again, how much power would he have if he dispelled that stupid seal Kakashi had put on him?

Naruto knew that he had to be careful now. Too many hits like that and he wouldn't be bringing himself back to Konoha, let alone Sasuke. He water walked back to the surface and jumped at the statue, throwing a punch at Sasuke, who had jumped off the statue to meet him. The punch missed and Sasuke drove a straight kick into Naruto's face. Naruto summoned up a few clones and used them as a trampoline to get at Sasuke, who he tackled into the statue's face.

"Stop dreaming and come back!" Naruto shouted.

"So says the dreamer," Sasuke muttered, "I'm not living in some village that will drown me, make me too weak to even think for myself. I don't need the future, just the past! That is why I still live!"

Once more, Sasuke knocked Naruto into the water and watched as the blond struggled to surface.

"You really are trying, aren't you?" Naruto asked after he surfaced.

"I don't need to try to defeat you, but killing you is a different story," Sasuke coldly stated.

"What about all we went through? Am I not your friend?" Naruto shouted.

"You being my 'closest friend' was my intent from the very beginning," Sasuke said.

Naruto was stunned "Why?"

"For more power, I must have a friend to kill. That is the sole reason I bothered with you." Sasuke couldn't believe that he had chosen this loser to be his 'closest friend.' Of course, he never knew that Naruto could become so powerful, not that it wasn't anything compared to Sasuke's new power.

"I don't get it, but you really mean to kill me," Naruto said, then jumped at Sasuke.

Once more, the boys met in a taijutsu battle. Sasuke blocked a few blows and jumped past Naruto, taking a kunai from the other boy's pouch. Naruto knew what was coming and threw a shuriken, deflecting the kunai. It was a diversion and Sasuke kicked him off the wall and into the river below. Naruto re-aligned himself and skid across the water.

"There is nobody here to save you this time. Kakashi is busy, I broke Sakura and Yue is as good as dead. I will finish you this time," Sasuke threatened, then activated the chidori.

Naruto had to admit that Sasuke's current chidori was the strongest he had ever seen produced thus far. He set his fingers in a cross seal. "I'm bringing you back and we can fix the brainwashing! **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"** A single clone appeared next to Naruto. The two formed a Rasengan, then the clone threw Naruto at Sasuke.

The two jutsu met and the water was blown into the air in protest to the incredible powers meeting. After a few moments of struggling, Sasuke's chidori increased in power, but Naruto's rasengan did as well. The two jutsu exploded, throwing lightning and a vortex of water into the air for a moment.

Naruto finally realized that Sasuke truly meant to kill him as he stood up, watching flame-like marks spread across the avenger's face.

"Real ninja don't need words. They speak through their fists, kunai, shuriken, swords and jutsu," Sasuke said as the seal spread further, "then again, a fake ninja like you could never hear me through combat." Sasuke went through the seals and fired a Hōsenka no Jutsu at Naruto, which was dodged. Sasuke caught him and started beating on the blond, who did his best to block the onslaught.

Naruto started to think of how similar the two were, then realized they were never similar. Sasuke had many people behind him, supporting him after his clan was killed off, helping him in spite of not wanting it. Naruto had so few people behind him it was almost like he was alone most of the time. Sasuke was a genius who did no wrong while Naruto was an idiot who did nothing but wrong. They were never similar. They were the furthest thing from similar.

Naruto caught the next blow and slammed his fist into Sasuke's jaw as hard as he could, sending the boy back and down.

Sasuke lifted himself up. "Where did that come, dobe?"

Naruto glared at his 'friend,' his eyes finally clear. "I admired you."

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"I wanted to be like you, to be on the same level as you in everything," Naruto said, "but now, now you are the last person I want to be like." Naruto's nails lengthened, his irises slitted and chakra leaked from his body. "We never were friends, you just wanted to use me."

Sasuke smirked and tore forward, aiming a chidori at Naruto's heart. Before Sasuke could take advantage of Naruto's inactivity, his hand was seized behind the wrist and he was thrown over Naruto's shoulder to skid over the surface of the water. What bothered Sasuke was that Naruto had been faster and stronger than a moment before. That and, for a brief moment, Sasuke thought he had seen wisps of red chakra coming from Naruto. To Sasuke's horror, more of this red chakra started to leak from Naruto, then kept on increasing in intensity, amount, and...evilness. After a few moments, it felt like he was staring down some terrible beast of senseless destruction. The chakra was so hot it boiled the water it touched, producing steam.

Naruto assumed a new, more feral combat stance, one that would allow his new claws to do their job. "If I have to cripple you, then I will! You are not going to Orochimaru!" the transformed boy growled.

"What are you?" Sasuke asked. None of it made sense. Naruto wasn't THIS powerful. Where did it come from? Was he always this strong? Could it be that this was the reason adults hated him? Maybe it was a terrible bloodline Konoha wished to disappear.

"I'm your comrade," Naruto said, "that's part of the reason I can't let you go to that traitor." Sasuke knew what the other part was without asking.

Naruto jumped at Sasuke and slashed at the boy. Sasuke barely blocked it, only to have Naruto smash him under the water with a slight increase in strength. Sasuke tried to spit a fireball at Naruto, but it was weakened by the water and torn apart by a chakra enhanced shout, which also forced Sasuke further down. Sasuke lost sight of Naruto, then got caught in a maelstrom of the boy's fists. He didn't know when or how it happened, but he got covered in scratches and then found himself stuck in a wall. Naruto landed on the wall, holding his neck. "Give up or I'll drag you back, broken limbs and all," Naruto warned.

"You don't know anything at all," Sasuke muttered, "bonds are a form of sufferance. To be born without those bonds, to never feel their terrible weight, YOU are the one who is blessed!" He freed himself and kicked Naruto away and onto the river.

"You're right, I never had those bonds," Naruto said, "but my time with Iruka-sensei makes me wonder if that's how a son feels with his father. I wonder sometimes if Yue, in some other life, could have been the older sister who tries to help me out. And when you and me are arguing and competing, is that how brothers are?"

"Why do all this for me?" Sasuke asked, "without me around, you can have Sakura for yourself."

"Because she wants you, not me," Naruto admitted, "and the one person I feel I have the strongest bond with in this world is you."

Sasuke got up, pulled his forehead protector out of his pocket and tied it on. A third tomoe appeared on his sharingan, completing it. "I'll shatter that bond, so you can experience a fragment of the pain and loss I have."

"Why are you wearing your forehead protector now?" Naruto asked.

"Because you are strong," Sasuke admitted, "because you know of pain and loneliness, the same I experienced, it has made you stronger than other ninja could ever hope to be." He smirked slightly. "If I sever a bond with one like me, then I will become even more powerful. We may be equals, but you won't injure my forehead, that will never change."

Naruto knew it was time to fight, not talk. He charged forward, demonic chakra increasing his speed three times his normal. His punch was barely dodged by Sasuke, who realized that he was starting to be able to see what Naruto would do before he did it. What interested him the most is that his body was reacting as it had when the curse seal was active. Sasuke easily dodged another strike, knowing that he could fight longer due to his eyes using less chakra than the curse seal, which fed on him like a starving beast.

On Naruto's next attack, Sasuke drove his fist into the charging boy's face, sending him flying. Naruto burst out of the water and attempted to get at Sasuke again, but he was kicked into the air and received the brunt of Sasuke's Shishi Rendan. As if that wasn't bad enough, Sasuke kept beating on him long after he stopped moving.

"_**You weak brat. You and that Hokage who sealed me in you...so alike in your weakness. Thank me, for I will save you,"**_ Kyūbi growled as its terrible chakra flooded out of the seal and throughout Naruto's body in amounts much greater than ever before.

Sasuke watched as Naruto was almost violently jerked onto his feet, red chakra bubbling out of his body like an infection. It spread and assumed a...shroud over Naruto's body, a shroud with two long ears on the head and a tail swaying in the back. Naruto dropped onto all fours, resembling a feral beast. It all made sense now, this power was the reason Itachi was after Naruto, the reason Naruto was so powerful, the reason Konoha despised him.

Naruto suddenly jumped at Sasuke, scaring the boy at how there was only one image as opposed to three or more. Quite simply, Naruto was too fast for his Sharingan. Before he knew it, Naruto was behind him and the Uchiha barely dodged the chakra charged scratch aimed at his shoulder. To his horror, the chakra itself rose up in the form of a claw and tried to claw his eyes out. He quickly moved away, since Uchiha didn't run away, and realized that the chakra couldn't be read because it didn't have muscles. That meant that a close range battle was impossible.

Sasuke went through the seals and launched an overcharged fireball at Naruto. To his shock, the chakra nullified his fire as if it were nothing.

Naruto lifted his hand, making Sasuke think he was safe at his current distance. Naruto swung his arm down, throwing a chakra extended punch into Sasuke's gut. With the same chakra arm, Naruto threw Sasuke into the wall as hard as he could, hoping to stun him. Sasuke saved himself, but only due to the curse seal. Sadly, the chakra arm was still holding him. Naruto yanked on it like it was a rope and drove a kick into Sasuke's shoulder, thinking it might be dislocated from the blow. As an added bonus, he let go with the chakra arm and sent Sasuke sailing into a wall.

The dust cleared and Sasuke was sitting with his back to the wall, chuckling his creepy Orochimaru chuckle. "I don't know what I am anymore, but that didn't hurt at all. Now that I have this _**power!"**_ Sasuke said as he got up and his skin changed to grayish brown hue, _**"I'm more powerful, more special than you could ever hope to be."**_ It finished spreading, leaving him with a black cross mark on his face. His hair was longer and a dark blue now.

"_**That form and this form, they aren't special,"**_ Naruto growled, **_"they are curses."_**

"_**Then curse me some more! I need more power!"**_ Sasuke declared.

Naruto charged forward, creating a giant chakra claw to completely immobilize Sasuke by pinning him to the wall. He struck and was shocked when a...giant claw/wing blocked his path. It swung back, throwing Naruto away and into a wall. Sasuke grunted as a second one of these twisted monstrosities grew out of his back. Right away, both boys felt their bodies start to suffer the effects of their forms.

"_**So that form is similar to my own. This place is called the Valley of the End,"**_ Sasuke stated, **_"ironic, isn't it? You and my ties to that weak village will both end here. This is the start of my life, my revenge."_**

Sasuke formed a chidori, letting the curse seal corrupt the once pure blade into a deadly spear, perfectly suited to destroying anything in its path. Naruto formed a rasengan, the vile chakra expanding it to several times its normal size and power. The two jumped forward, aiming their jutsu at the other.

They met and skidded against each other a bit, creating a massive ball of black and red chakra. The two jutsu broke past each other. Naruto's rasengan hitting and snapping Sasuke's forehead protector's plate, fraying much of fabric as well. Sasuke's chidori hitting Naruto's stomach, but couldn't break through the shroud of chakra. The ball cracked as the jutsu were released, then shattered as its sources faded away.

The sun was eaten away at by the storm overhead, the last thing the light touched being the shining necklace Naruto wore. Sasuke's forehead protector finally gave in to the damage and tore, falling next to Naruto's head. Sasuke touched his forehead, feeling a sting of pain. He drew his hand back and saw some blood. "Naruto, You got my forehead." He remained silent for a few moments, then took one of Naruto's kunai. Before he could do anything, he was wracked with pain. He realized that he had to get moving now or he wouldn't make it to Orochimaru. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't kill Naruto today.

He left Naruto and his snapped forehead protector behind as he fled.

_[Fifteen minutes later]_

Kakashi arrived, hoping to find both his students alive. Instead, he found Naruto prone, seemingly dead. He quickly went over, taking note of Sasuke's destroyed forehead protector. He looked down at Naruto and was mildly shocked to see that someone had already treated Naruto's wounds a bit. The belt wrapped around Naruto's stomach was a dead giveaway. It was Yue's. "Pakkun, can you smell Yue nearby?"

The dog shook his head. "She was here, but it is too far gone now. There's another thing."

Kakashi lifted Naruto up. "What is it?"

Pakkun's unreadable face looked up at Kakashi. "She's bleeding chakra. It also feels strange, like she was struggling with it. Actually, it doesn't feel like chakra at all. It's filled with hatred, sorrow and pain."

Kakashi didn't like the sound of that. It was no small secret that hanyō could become unstable later on in their lives. Since it had happened to her once before, it could happen again. While it may be wrong, he hoped that Yue either lost Sasuke's trail or the boy got to Orochimaru before she caught up to him. Either way, he figured the girl's days as a kunoichi were drawing to a close.

On the way back, they ran into medics and learned that most of the team was badly injured, Choji and Neji being in critical condition. Throughout all of this, Naruto was tormented by his failure to bring his friend back, his broken promise to Sakura.

How could he face her?

_[Land of Sound, a day later]_

Sasuke was greeted by the sight of Kabuto and a squad of Oto-nin. Sasuke chose to not comment on how cowardly they were, waiting for him to be well within their borders before even bothering to show their faces. He had recovered somewhat, but he couldn't fight at the moment.

"Sasuke-kun, take this," Kabuto offered as he held out a pill, "this will ease the pain as well as restore much of your lost chakra." Sasuke took the pill, feeling the pain fade and power surge through his body. It wasn't quite up to full, but at least he could start training right away. "Now it is time to take care of the pest," Kabuto stated.

"What-" Sasuke managed before something struck the ground behind him with incredible force, throwing a large cloud of dust into the air. Sasuke glared into it with his sharingan and swore that he saw something inhuman within it for a moment before the cloud became too thick again. Once it cleared, it revealed the other teammate he wanted to crush, Kazeneko Yue.

Yue had landed using Kubikirihōchō as a post, sitting on the flat bottom of the blade. She was happy that the sword was so heavy. By using it as a weight, she had managed to not only cover a good distance, she also literally got the drop on the Oto-nin. She leapt off her giant sword and started to carve up the weak ninja that rushed her, finding them to be around chūnin level. Within a minute, they were nothing more than broken, bloody bodies in a clearing.

"Impressive," Kabuto praised, "but they are nothing compared to me." The twisted medic ran forward, swinging a chakra scalpel at the hanyō's neck. It was dodged and she drove a short kick into Kabuto's knee, partially dislocating it. Kabuto didn't like that he still hadn't completely healed from Naruto's attack back at Tanzaku.

Before Yue could take advantage of his weakness, Sasuke kicked her in the face. With her off balance, he shoulder tackled her, knocking her weapons out of her hands and her away from them. "Now you aren't all that strong!" Sasuke shouted as he punched at the girl. Yue punched too, striking Sasuke's fist with her own. Naturally, Sasuke was stopped by the pain long enough for Yue to smash him into the air with an uppercut. She went to follow him, but Kabuto nicked her leg with his chakra scalpels, doing enough damage to make her jump wildly away. She landed near Yin and Yang, taking a moment to pick them up.

"Sasuke-kun, there's something about her that you need to know," Kabuto muttered.

"What about her could possibly interest me at this time?" Sasuke asked.

"For one, her lineage," Kabuto offered as he drew out a few cards, "these are a copies of all her records, including an original birth certificate, one that hasn't been doctored."

Sasuke was about to take the card, but a fireball flew at them, forcing them apart. Sasuke launched a Hōsenka at her to keep her busy, but Yue fired a Kajou Tama at him, forcing him to dodge as she did, removing his chance for a free attack.

"Who are her parents?" Sasuke shouted. For someone to alter her birth certificate, she had to have a secret that didn't want to be seen.

Kabuto smirked, knowing this would hurt the girl as well. "That's simple. Her mother was Kazeneko Luna, a nekomata from beyond the Edge. Her father was a shinobi from Konoha, but not just any shinobi. He was..."

_[Konoha, same time]_

"What did you say?" Kakashi asked, completely stunned at what he had just learned.

"You heard me," Urami said in a defeated tone, "her last name wasn't Kazeneko. It was changed after her parents' death."

"But I thought that he didn't have any children. That's what you reported," Tsunade said in a low tone, "did you lie to 'save face' as you would call it?"

Urami looked down in shame. "As Hokage, you can punish me as much as you want, but I was mistaken at the time."

Tsunade sighed and rubbed her temples. This little bit of truth about the hanyō made her situation so much more difficult to deal with. "Kakashi. I know you just got back, but I'm giving you a mission to go retrieve Kazeneko Yue," Tsunade ordered, "she must be brought back to Konoha."

"But Hokage-sama. Pakkun lost her trail at the border. Even if we were to follow Sasuke's scent, there is no guarantee that we would find her at all," Kakashi stated, "and sending me alone may not be enough. If she goes berserk again-"

"She didn't go berserk," Urami said, "there is no way she could have lost herself to her instincts."

Kakashi looked at the grim man, not able to believe that the one who wanted Yue destroyed the most that night was defending her. "And how do you know that? You didn't have to carry that mess back. She lost it and-"

Clack. "Uh, am I interrupting something?" Jiraiya asked from the window.

Tsunade was, for once, glad to see the old perv. "Did you finally finish your research? And by research I mean looking into that mark on Yue's face."

Jiraiya cringed, a sign that he had visited the hot springs a few times, and not as a customer. "Yeah. It was a good thing that you scanned it or I wouldn't have figured out that it was such a powerful curse seal."

Kakashi started at those words. So far, curse seals did nothing more than bring about problems. But what bothered Kakashi was that Yue, by all accounts, had always had that mark on her face. Where could she have gotten it?

"How did she get it?" Tsunade asked.

"She was born with it," Urami cut in, "I was present for her birth, so I have a lot of details on her."

Jiraiya sighed. "That's not good."

Kakashi looked at the man. "What do you mean, Jiraiya-sama?"

Jiraiya frowned at the title. "The seal on her face is an ancient seal used by demons to control other demons. It is called the Slave Seal, and it works by forming a blood contract between the marked party and another who has shared their blood with the slave. From that moment on, the marked one has to obey the orders of their master. Before you ask, I can remove it, but she'll die before the seal even starts to fade. These things are permanent."

Nobody heard the light steps run from the door, nor did they feel the small chakra signature that accompanied the steps.

"Of course, there is a drawback to using the seal," Jiraiya finished.

"What drawback?" Urami asked. He never bothered to ask about her seal.

Jiraiya' face became solemn. "If the slave is given an order that they can't fulfill, the seal will punish them for their lack of effort. If the order isn't lifted, it could drive them insane with agony. Also, the death of the contractor at the slave's hands results in the sealing of their yōki. The only way to regain their powers is to form a new contract."

Urami glanced at Kakashi. "Told you she didn't go berserk. He ordered her to kill him." He didn't bother trying to think of why that boy wanted to die.

"Who is she contracted to now?" Kakashi heard himself asking.

Tsunade thought for a few moments, then checked the records concerning the girl. "Apparently, Yue's yōki reactivated during the second part of the chūnin exams. There was video feed of Yamanaka Ino resuscitating her."

"That must be when she was contracted to Yue, well, more like the other way around. Ino must have been bleeding when she was giving her CP-Rrrrr," He stopped as he imagined the blonde (with a few years on her) and another girl, giving her the 'kiss of life.' His hand twitched and was about to move into his pocket, but a chill ran down his spine at the memory of the girl's father. He did NOT want to stroll about Konoha naked, despite all the women who would want him afterward.

"Jiraiya, out of the gutter," Tsunade warned, "so that means Yamanaka Ino is in control of Yue. We must make certain that she doesn't learn of the seal's functions. If she already knows, tell her everything the seal can do so she knows it's dangerous to use." She looked at Kakashi. "You will go try and find Yue. She isn't a danger to anyone right now, so bring her back. That is an order." She turned away to look out the window, a sign that everyone in the room had to get moving.

Kakashi went and hurried out of the building. _'I can't believe it,'_ Kakashi thought, _'this whole time, I had the daughter of Ruuko Nozomu on my team.'_ His eyes went down to the paper in his hands, then he changed direction to the nearest dango stand. Anko had to explain something he saw on the girl's information sheet. This was critical information he needed.

_'What does this mark mean? I've never seen it before...'_

**A/N~**

You may be happy to know that I am currently balancing out Yue's finishers. She has a total eleven different variations of the same move, but none have the sheer destructive power of Naruto's Rasenshuriken or Tailed Beast Rasengan.

I've been reading some of EroSlackerMicha's works lately in hopes of getting some reference material for writing a lemon. I've actually read a few others and I got an idea. Why is Naruto always the experienced one, why is he always in control, and why is Sakura always rocked by Naruto and his tree trunk? I am currently writing a somewhat dark fic where Sakura, for lack of a better term, snaps from her hormones, Sasuke's indifference and Naruto trying to ask her out. She rapes him and it leads to him getting stronger as well as meeting many girls who later become his lovers. Yeah, its a harem story. Its in the very early planning stages, so it is extreme back burner for now.

And in future fic news, the sequel to this has been renamed to Konoha's 3rd demon: Beyond the Edge. Unlike the canon Naruto story and this fic, it deals with Yue's destiny, which I'm not revealing since it will spoil this story. I'll ask now if anyone is against some higher tech in the sequel. It is nothing more than a highly advanced train (can travel almost anywhere, even water, without tracks) and motorcycle-like vehicles. There will be no guns, no super laser, no guy in a black armored survival suit with the mic too close to his mouth and no power plant draining the planet to death. Before anyone goes and says that tech like that doesn't exist in Naruto, I will remind you that they have radios, TVs, cameras, camcorders, VCRs, fridges, microwaves, small boat engines and various other bits of tech.

**Omake~**

Just a quick note first. These have nothing to do with my fic at all. They're mostly humor based and, well, read and find out. It's me (and Sakura) poking fun at all those people who believe SasuSaku is still possible.

**SasuSaku!**

Sasuke was walking around the hospital, looking for the girl he had left on a bench three and a half years ago. Instead of finding her, he found a beautiful young woman checking patient files. He just numbly stared at her, shocked that the girl's looks alone hadn't brought him back to Konoha.

Sakura noticed him and walked over. "Hello Sasuke-kun. How are you?"

Sasuke looked away a bit. "Alright. Could have done better without the Rasengan to the stomach."

Sakura stifled a giggle. "You wouldn't come back unless Naruto made sure that you couldn't fight back. It was the stomach or the genitals," the girl explained.

Considering that Sasuke was hoping to use his nuts in the near future, he preferred the semi-solid diet he was currently on.

Both teens were silent as they looked around, trying to find the courage to go on.

"Sasuke/Sakura." The two said at the same time. "You go first," they synced once more.

Sasuke took a deep breath. "I'm sorry...about before. You know, when I tried to kill you."

Sakura looked down to hide the shame in her eyes. "I should be apologizing. I almost stabbed you with that poisoned kunai."

They were silent again, only Sakura was now staring directly at Sasuke.

"Um, maybe we could go on a da-" Sasuke started, only to be silenced when Sakura pulled him close and kissed him hard. A few moments after, she dragged him into a room and locked the door behind them. Nobody saw them again for half an hour.

_[Real world]_

Sakura's eye twitched. "Are you fucking insane?" she asked the recently returned Uchiha.

Sasuke was honestly surprised. "I thought you'd jump me as soon as I showed my face."

Sakura stifled a laugh. "There are a few problems with that story. One, we tried to kill each other. Kinda hard to love someone after that. Two, I hate you with a passion. Three, you honestly believe you'd last more than a few moments?"

"Wha- But? Huh?" Sasuke sputtered. This was NOT what he thought would happen.

Sakura sighed. "Besides, what about Naruto?"

"Hinata likes him, doesn't she?" he asked, then thought for a few moments, "how about Ino or one of those many girls who love him?"

"Naruto wouldn't know they loved him if they confessed on a daily basis, slept with him, got pregnant and married him," Sakura deadpanned, knowing that was the truth, "and you honestly think I'd let the Hyūga take him?"

Sasuke nodded. "Of course I do. I'm back."

Sakura shoved him aside. "I don't have time for you. I've got a blond who need a 'very thorough physical' from me." She took a few steps away from Sasuke and then walked back and yanked his pants down in the middle of the hospital hallway. "Hmm. Ino was right, the mighty Uchiha isn't so mighty after all. Damn, now I owe her fifty ryo." She walked away, grumbling about Ino's ability to predict a guy's size. She hoped Ino was right about Naruto's 'special weapon' as the blonde girl said while drooling slightly. The blonde better stay away from Naruto's weapon if she knows what's good for her too. Sakura had weapons and none of them brought pleasure.

Sasuke pulled up his pants and saw a few giggling nurses. "What?" he shouted as he backed up, "it's cold in here!"

"If I had a ryo for every time I've heard that, I'd be able to buy all of Konoha," a nurse said as the Uchiha ran away.

**Hinata's happy day**

Hinata was lying in bed, happy that Sasuke and Sakura had gotten together. How and why the girl was able to accept a man she had been so willing to kill, and who tried to kill her in return was beyond Hinata's reasoning. She smiled, remembering how she had comforted Naruto after he found his two former teammates making out at the training field. That eventually led to Naruto doing anything but comfort Hinata. Hell, he made her sore as hell sometimes.

_'Sakura probably has a hard time with Sasuke sometimes because nobody ever hears anything from their place,'_ she thought, remembering how Sakura complained about Sasuke being 'unsuited' to pleasing her. The heiress then glanced over at a slowly growing pile of complaints the neighbors had lodged against them, all of them being disturbing the peace fines. Hinata couldn't help that Naruto was as good to her as he was, making her scream in response to all his actions behind closed doors.

"Hey mom!" their daughter, Maki shouted as she burst into her parent's room, "can I have some money for Ichiraku's?"

Hinata regarded the child. At thirteen, she was a mix of Hinata and Naruto. She possessed crystal blue eyes that were still capable of using the byakugan, lighter blue hair than her mother and a figure that should be classed as an SS-rank kinjutsu. Luckily the girl preferred baggy clothes like her parents. Her clothes were a mix of black with some purple and orange on the sleeves and pant legs, an Uzumaki spiral on the back of her jacket.

"Here," Hinata said as she held out enough money to feed three genin teams, their sensei included, roughly the amount that the girl could eat. "You should eat a bit less or you'll never get a boyfriend."

The girl stuck out her tongue. "Until some sweet guy like dad comes by, I'll stick to stuffing my face." She stared at her mother for a few moments, then smiled in a way that would make her father proud. "Mom, just go to the office and have you're way with him. I'm sure he wants it too."

Hinata stared at her daughter for a full four seconds, then her nose shot out blood and she fainted.

Maki chuckled. "Take that dad, I don't even need Oiroke no jutsu to make mom ride the rocket." She then left to go eat her favorite meal.

_[Real World]_

Hinata had been listening in on Sakura's and Sasuke's conversation. After hearing Sasuke mention that Naruto should be with her, Hinata found the world swaying. When Sakura mentioned that Naruto had a 'secret weapon' in his pants, Hinata dropped onto the ground, dreams and fantasies running rampant in her 'pure' brain. She was later found lying face first in a small puddle of blood with the most perverted smile ever found on a girl.

Translations-

**Shidō-sha:** Lit. leader. Yue and her teammates often used this term to tick off Anko, who hates formalities. Ironically, Yue inherited Anko's dislike of titles.

Jutsu Index-

**Slave Seal:** An ancient seal used by demons to subjugate lesser demons. The seal bearer must obey the orders of the master, even if it will bring harm or death to the sealed demon. When the orders are ignored or impossible to complete, the seal will burn its host with chakra and continue increasing the pain until the order is carried out or the demon has lost unconsciousness. Unlike other seals, this one is permanent and attempted removal will kill the individual. Even the death of the seal master doesn't erase the seal.

Regardless of what form the seal takes, it always covers a certain percentage of the victim's body. The seal is actually extremely small, arranged script that powers the seal. Yue's seal is smaller than normal and composed of one hundred and fifty seals, all compacted into two scratch-like marks. Yue's seals go from an inch below the outside corner of her left eye and, according to Tsunade, terminates an inch above the girl's left nipple. The largest seal known was placed on a bear demon and covered its entire arm, with a whopping four thousand, nine hundred and thirty words within it. The script is never intelligible due to its size and lack of reference material to the lost language.

When the contractor orders their slave to kill them, the seal will knock the slave out after the deed is done, sealing their yōki away until they find a new master.

Character Intro-

Kazeneko Luna: Yue's mother. Her past is shrouded in mystery. She followed Nozomu, who she fell in love with at first sight, in spite of him being a Ruuko. Love won out when he fell for her as well in spite of her being a demon, his clan's prey. Three years later, they had a daughter, Ruuko Yue. Supposedly killed by Nozomu. The investigation into her death is now reopened since the facts don't add up anymore. That and the crime was handled by the Uchiha Police Force, who wanted nothing to do with the case in the first place.

Ruuko Nozomu: Nozomu was one of the greatest Ruuko in the last fifty years. His talent with weapons and their designs has never been matched in the past or present. Despite being a Ruuko, he has chosen to not hunt sentient, peaceful demons, which is odd since the Ruuko clan kills anything with demon blood, regardless of how peaceful it is. He even went so far as to fall in love with a demon and later have a child with her. Supposedly killed his wife and then himself, but that is as unlikely now as it was back then.

Ruuko Yue: Her true name and heritage. Despite this being her name, she still uses her mother's maiden name. She has inherited her father's natural talent for weapons as well as his brilliance for weapon design. Instinctively knows moves from the Ruuko's style, just like her father. Due to being victimized by her own clan mates, Yue holds a deep hatred for the Ruuko and refuses to acknowledge any relation to them that isn't hatred based.

**Responses-**

**SuperNeos2:** Maybe, maybe not. Actually she doesn't. I've already said that Sasuke's major beat down at Yue's hands won't be until later, and it will be extremely one-sided.

**Sky Zephyrus:** Think of how she is and that will give you an idea of when she is going to confess. Actually, I'm going to make it so she gets nervous, thinking that maybe, just maybe, Naruto may not like her that way anymore. (as if that will ever happen)

As for what Yue can do with the Cursed Seal of Fate, wait for the next chapter. The basics of what it can do will be shown.

**DarkLordK:** The meteorite jutsu was used in chapter 560.

Sasuke's just angry because I have mostly skipped over his fights. Here's a hint to the tenth Akatsuki member: Ku. He is often referred to as 'the great black snake' and is over seven feet tall.

**thedarkpokemaster:** The shit has yet to hit the fan. That happens in chapter 25 and an unwritten chapter later. Like I said, Yue will downright humiliate Sasuke later.

**9-tailed reaper:** And more is what you get! The correct spelling is 'Sassu-hole.' It maintains both 'ass' and 'Sasuke' with very little change in pronunciation. Of course, he is going to snap out of his BS later and change. Don't expect instant change, it will build slowly and just explode later. He'll still be a mopey ass, but he won't be hell bent on destroying everything.

I'm thinking Yue will physically defeat Sasuke while Naruto will emotionally defeat him. We all know that Naruto can't bring himself to use all his power against Sasuke, but Yue will have far too many reasons to nearly kill him later.

**MrUnclePeanuts:** I know this guy is all the way back in chapter 11, but when he gets here, I can clarify things a bit for him and others who have been wondering. My usual artist friend, who draws out my characters, is currently MIA. I may have to draw Yue out myself, which may not be a good thing. I can draw, but it takes me forever and two days to draw very well. Just because I said I can draw well doesn't mean I can draw **that** well! I'd be better off drawing Ku! Drawing weapons is where my talents lie in the art world.

While it seems I don't like Kakashi, I actually do. He's one of the top male characters in my opinion. He just decided to teach the wrong student. I honestly think he saw himself in Sasuke. (Bet he doesn't see himself in the traitorous little shit now) Everyone has to admit that he was a total ass when it came to anyone other than Sasuke it part I. He flat out refused to teach Naruto so he could go off and help Sasuke, leaving Naruto in the hands of a weak closet pervert. As for Sakura, it seems he taught her even less than Naruto. We only see her learning to climb trees and we get a mention of genjutsu training.

As for describing Yue a bit more in detail-

Her hair is longer than before, reaching a bit past her shoulders in the back and falling into her eyes in the front. Her black hair is marred by a silver streak roughly in the center of her bangs. She possesses both human and cat ears, the feline ears being above her human ears on her head. Her cat tail is about two feet long and she has a small patch of fur where it is joined to her back. Other than that patch of fur, her tail, cat ears and her hair, she has no fur or hair on her body. Her fur, like her hair, is black. (yes, she is smooth as some would say)

She wears, as I pointed out, a sleeveless hoodie now due to her old clothes being destroyed. It is a pullover hoodie, sort of like a shirt with a hood. Most of her legs are exposed due to her wearing shorts like Sakura. Her forehead protector is worn like Hinata's, around her neck. It is damaged from wear and tear, bearing some small gashes, a few dents, an abrasion or two and some of the cloth is frayed. She can go bare foot, but often wears the sandals all shinobi wear. She used to wear bandages around her neck to further hide the scar across her neck, but doesn't anymore. She possesses no civilian clothing set.

She is rarely seen without her swords and lightning kunai. Her finger nails are long enough and sharp enough to serve as weapons but her toe nails are the same length as a human's. Despite looking exactly the same as human nails, her nails are much harder, allowing her to actually tear wood, clothing, flesh and muscle without worry of broken nails. Her nails grow back quickly.

**chm01:** Understandable. There hasn't been too much deviation from canon in KTD so far. Part II will have much more deviation than Part I, such as Sasuke getting the life beaten out of him. No quick fight and then flame shunshin away, more like him being carried away by Pedo-snake. The changes will pile up as time goes along. Yue is far, far more active in Part II and plays a much larger role than teacher and teammate.

And while I'm here, I am working on the next chapter for Kyūbi's Kit. It's hard putting all of Hiruzen's fight together when its scattered around like mad. That and where to start the deviation to avoid the old man's death and how that deviation plays out.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Demon Within

**Disclaimer: I can't claim I own Naruto...because I don't own Naruto.**

**Quick Note: Since no information about Tenten's family has ever been released, I'm making it so that she's an orphan. This will hold true in most of my fics. I also decided to throw in one last fun/goofy part for Yue in Part I. Enjoy!**

Yue stared at the gray haired medic, pain tearing its way through her body. Her father was a Ruuko. She suddenly remembered how Urami suddenly changed his attitude about her during the exams and it all made sense. The reason she was hated.

She was a bastardized Ruuko, a filthy half breed demon slayer, doomed to slaughter her own kin...

No! They had to be lying! Ruuko killed demons, they didn't impregnate them with half breeds. Her lineage was still an unknown and always would be. In a sense, Orochimaru had killed part of her 'family' when he killed the Sandaime.

Kabuto came at her, trying to take advantage of her confusion and sink a kunai in her neck. Sadly, Yue snapped out of it and ducked his blow, then retaliated by grabbing his arm and dragging her nails down it, ripping his arm open. Blood poured from the wounds as the medic jumped back and started healing himself. He still hadn't fully recovered from Naruto's attack and Yue was just adding more to it.

"Sasuke-kun. I'm sure that, even in your slightly weakened state, a pathetic and clueless Ruuko is no match for you," Kabuto stated. Sasuke grunted his agreement.

Yue growled deep in her chest. "I'm not a Ruuko. I'm a Kazeneko."

"I don't care what you are, I'll kill you so I can finally be free to have my revenge," Sasuke muttered as he started going through the seals. Yue followed suit and the two rushed at each other.

"**Chidori!"** the two shouted as the jutsu met. The imperfect blade in Yue's left hand raged against the sharingan copied chidori in Sasuke's right hand.

It was a perfect match, neither jutsu proving to be better than the other.

_'What's going on? I clearly had more thrust since I ran faster and farther than her, so how are we matched?'_ Sasuke wondered.

"Damn. I must be worn out if my chidori can't break yours," Yue growled as she tried to force her raiton forward.

Sasuke kicked Yue in the stomach, pushing himself away from her while canceling his chidori. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"You know of affinities, right? They're natures that some shinobi show a strong aptitude for, letting them learn the jutsu easier than other elements as well as having greater power with them. I've got fire and lightning affinities, though my lightning affinity is a little special," the girl said as she released her chidori.

Sasuke wasn't amused. "It doesn't matter how special your pathetic affinity is, I'm a genius and an Uchiha. Nothing is greater than the blood in my veins."

"So a rare triple affinity is nothing at all? If that's the case, that must make you the dumbest Uchiha ever," Yue taunted.

Kabuto's eyes nearly popped out of his head. Only three people, now four, had triple affinities in the past and all of them were horrendously powerful. Among those three was a man the world feared as the strongest missing-nin to ever exist; Uchiha Madara, whose triple affinity for katon practically made him a literal god of flame. He is the only man known to have mastered every single katon in existence as well as create quite a few that made most others look like candles in comparison. It is believed by many that the Sage of Six Paths had one or more triple affinities, but that was long before their discovery. If she truly possessed a triple affinity for lightning, she was far more dangerous than anyone could have thought.

Sasuke took the jab and rushed forward, blindly trying to hit Yue. She dodged most, then used her small size to slip passed Sasuke's guard and drive her fist up into his jaw. Sasuke tried again after regaining his balance, calmer this time, but Yue evaded his blows with ease.

"STAY STILL!" he shouted as his assault continued.

Yue listened to him and she instead deflected his next blow, once again forcing her way through his guard so her back was to his chest. Before he could react, Yue slammed both her elbows into his stomach. With Sasuke winded, Yue backed off to think.

"Why fight so hard?" Sasuke asked, "you should know my position better than anyone, having lost bonds at a young age, but you act like Naruto, who never knew of family bonds."

"I'm like Naruto since I never felt like I had a real family," Yue stated.

Sasuke frowned. "You did have a family. One was a Ruuko and the other was a Kazeneko, right?"

Yue resisted the urge to scream. "Kazeneko mother: yes, Ruuko father: don't even kid yourself. It doesn't matter who my father was, I never had a family because they were taken from me before I could remember. I've always been an orphan, just like Naruto."

"So let me guess; having bonds and losing them is nothing compared to never having them?" Sasuke asked.

"Naturally," Yue said in an 'everyone knows this' sort of way.

"I thought you might understand, but I guess that nobody can understand the true burden of bonds," Sasuke muttered, "losing bonds is the most painful thing one can experience. Bonds are suffering, something you and all other orphans are free from. To want more pain, you are incredibly stupid, just like the dobe."

"You stupid, arrogant son of a bitch!" Yue shouted, making Sasuke take a step back, "you think that it is any easier to never have a parent, to spend your whole life thinking that they abandoned you for some reason? Do you think that me, Naruto and Tenten had a happy life because we never had anything to lose? You know nothing at all! Having nothing is by far the greatest pain anyone can suffer. You have names, faces and memories attached to the term 'family' where orphans have nothing! I don't know about the others, but I spent every night crying myself to sleep, thinking I was a mistake or something like that! If what Kabuto said is true, I've been right all along!"

"W-what?" Sasuke gasped.

"My parents, if one was a Ruuko, were killed because I'm a half-breed, the most disgusting and unnatural thing a Ruuko can encounter. Are you so stuck in your own past that you can't put two and two together? Some fucking genius you are, dumbass!" Yue shouted. She tore forward, using her rage to fuel her strength, and started to beat Sasuke with all her superior skill and speed.

In all his life, Sasuke had faced a few opponents who were able to read his movements and counter them. Even fewer were the times he encountered someone who could easily defeat him in taijutsu. Yue was both, reading his attacks with ease and landing blows that Sasuke would feel for days. While she was petite, in only made her harder to fight. She hit harder than Kiba but was fast, making her Sasuke's worst opponent. She even made up for her lack of height and reach by repeatedly getting into his guard and hitting him. This was the strength of a jōnin.

Sasuke saw and opening and took it, not seeing it as a trap. Yue caught his leg and locked it with her arms, then forcing herself forward with a short charge. It was then that he realized that she intended to break his knee. Since Yue couldn't dodge his attacks right now, Sasuke drove a punch into her forehead. As expected, Yue released his leg and stumbled back as she held her head.

"Sasuke-kun! A present from Orochimaru-sama!" Kabuto shouted as he threw something to Sasuke.

Sasuke caught the object and looked at it. "A chokutō..." Sasuke mused. He had some training with a sword, probably more than enough to deal with Yue.

"So it's that way, huh?" Yue asked as she drew her left handed blade, "fine then, let's see if the Elite Genin can match up against a tokubetsu jōnin who almost became ANBU."

Sasuke swung his sword down and found Yue's blade rise up and smack it away with ease. He tried again, but Yue struck down on the back edge of his sword, nearly knocking it out of his hands. He tried a feint, making it look like he was going to perform a sideways sweeping slash, then switched his grip and swung it overhead, but she caught it again. _'Clearly, I need training with this,'_ Sasuke mused as he tried to force his blade down.

"What's the matter?" Yue asked as Sasuke held her sword back, "why aren't you using your sharingan to hypnotize me, to predict my movements? Those are the basics of the sharingan. The sharingan is an advanced ocular jutsu that allows the complete and total copying of non-kekkei genkai, non-kekkei tōta and hijutsu. Could your ability with it be so low that you can't even use it properly?"

Sasuke was shocked and it showed. "How do you know so much about the sharingan?"

Yue shoved her blade down, forcing Sasuke back. "I've done my homework and I've learned some things, such as a certain panel that leads to a certain little tablet."

Now Sasuke was worried. That tablet, left to the Uchiha by the Sage of Six Paths, contained knowledge only the Uchiha should be allowed to know, such as how to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan and use its abilities. To say that it was something that nobody else should know about was an understatement. Sasuke only knew about it because Itachi had told him about it as proof that the Mangekyō Sharingan was real and how to awaken it, to show that he wasn't lying.

Sasuke activated his sharingan and nearly paled. No images appeared telling him of Yue's future movements as she came at him. "What?"

Yue smirked as her blade was barely locked by Sasuke's. "I've reversed it."

Sasuke swung his sword hard, knocking Yue back when she blocked. "What do you mean?"

"You really are an idiot, aren't you? With the sharingan, the user must exhibit some level of calm to activate the prediction ability. Zabuza partially did this back in Wave, though he used mist and a vocal jutsu to do it. Plain and simple, YOU are the one who is rattled," Yue taunted.

Sasuke forcibly calmed himself down and saw that she was right, a ghostly image of her future movements appeared. It bothered him that it was barely visible, but that might be her advanced training and experience as a jōnin at work. "Stupid move Neko-baka, now you can't win."

They clashed again and Sasuke smirked. It wasn't until he saw the image of Yue's arms move to a new position that he realized the flaw to the sharingan.

Slice!

Drip. Drip. Drip.

"It can predict the movement of the body, but not the tool," Sasuke muttered as he held his now bleeding left shoulder. It was the same with Naruto's strange chakra.

"And that is a flaw I was told existed within the sharingan. It is built primarily for countering taijutsu, genjutsu and ninjutsu. Kenjutsu is the only style it can't naturally counter. This is why the Uchiha were so against allowing the Ruuko into Konoha, they feared the bastard clan would crush them and take their place," Yue informed the ignorant brat.

"Told? By who?" Sasuke asked.

Yue seemed to realize that she made a mistake, but smirked evilly at the heir. "Wouldn't you like to know..."

She blocked a few more of Sasuke's strikes before she grew tired of playing with him. She caught his sword on her own and with skilled movement, forced him to release his blade as she pushed it upwards. Had she not been trying to capture him, she'd have driven her sword into his guts when his eyes shot up after his flying weapon. "You really suck when it comes to swords, so you pick what comes next," Yue offered as she jumped out of his range, sheathing Yang.

Sasuke grunted and charged the girl, once more resorting to taijutsu. Here, he was in control. Even if she was more skilled than him, his longer reach was a slight advantage. Their speed was close to a match now. He created an opening and slammed his foot into the girl's chest, throwing her a good distance back.

"Now it all makes sense," Sasuke muttered, "now I see why you're so powerful." He glared at her, his sharingan taking everything in. "You feed off the pain of the past, that gives you power."

Yue grit her teeth in anger. "For once, you're right. What happened to me in the past fuels me, gives me power. But what gives me the drive to live is what I decide for myself. Before I left the village, I decided to bring you back through almost any means necessary."

"Oh? What are you willing to do?" Sasuke asked.

"Breaking your arms and legs. If I have to, I'll sever some muscles. Worst case, I'll damage an organ or two," Yue frowned at the thought of having to go that far.

"Big words from a kitten," Sasuke shot back.

Yue smirked. "You never did ask what types of missions I did when in Anko's team, nor did you bother asking when I first killed."

Sasuke frowned. "Why should I care?"

"Because me and my two teammates were brought up to be an assassins. As soon as we could, we pretty much only took missions where the order was to terminate living targets. My first kill was back when I was only ten years old," Yue stated. She then smirked. "Your first kill was back during the chunin exams when you drove your kunai into that Kiri genin's spine, and that wasn't even planned."

Sasuke ran forward and feinted, actually tricking the girl into focusing on his fists. With her eyes raised, he drove a hard kick into her gut, sending her flying into the giant sword she had been entrusted with. She made a wonderful clanging and crinkling noise with that impact, a sign that something cracked in her body.

"Sasuke-kun, that was quite brutal," Kabuto said with a smirk.

"Brutal?" Yue asked as she pulled herself up, "I've experienced far worse than that. Even Naruto could have hit me harder."

Sasuke grit his teeth, the went through the seals. "But he can't do this." He finished with the tiger seal.

"Aw shit..." Yue groaned.

"**Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu!"** Sasuke shouted as the fireball rushed the girl. She flipped over her sword, dropping onto its other side. The flames engulfed the sword and a yelp of pain was heard. After few moments, Sasuke cut the flow of chakra to his jutsu.

The ground was burned black and only the slightly glowing Kubikirihōchō was left standing. Yue came out from behind the blade, coughing due to all the air having been sucked into the fire. A quick glance back and the girl grabbed her tail, quickly burying the smoking end into the ground to put out the dying embers in spite of the obvious pain it caused her.

"Heh. Guess that tail was nothing more than a weakness. Nice bald spot." Sasuke smirked at the girl.

Yue glared daggers at the heir. "Now my tail is going to have some silver on it. Ah well, matches my head."

Sasuke looked from her tail to the single silver streak in the hanyō's bangs. "So...scars produce silver hair and fur?"

Yue nodded. "Strange, but I don't mind. Actually makes me look more unique. Thanks for making me cooler!" Now she was smiling brightly like a total idiot.

"Stop faking," Sasuke ordered.

Right away, Yue dropped her head so most of her face was hidden by her hair. "What? You don't want me to smile or anything? That's so boring though..."

"Faking your way through life is annoying to everyone around you. Accept your anger and sadness, it will make you far stronger," Sasuke stated, "if you embrace the hatred you have for others, you will gain incredible power."

Yue peeked at Sasuke through her bangs, her eyes filled with barely contained contempt. "You sound like Gaara used to be. Look at where it got him, beaten by Naruto, a person you see as the weakest person you know. Oh wait, didn't that already happen to you?"

Sasuke snorted, not falling for her tactics. "I acknowledge that Naruto is strong, but he could be even stronger if he turned his back on those who wronged him. If he stopped trying to get them to acknowledge his existence and focused on getting stronger to make them fear him, he'd have surpassed me long ago."

Yue sighed. "You really are a twisted little shit, ain't ya?"

"What!" Sasuke hated when people made him out to be a little kid, not that it happened too often.

"Spoiled rotten little fuck up, ignorant of those around him, believes others exist solely to prove his superiority, bent on a goal he can't ever hope to complete," Yue listed off as she stood up, "that's Anko-sensei's version of your personality. While on that note, you had a surprising favorable psych report. Said you were the model of a Konoha shinobi, absolutely zero chance of danger with you. Seems that, rather than test you properly, the guy or girl was too busy putting a few more lip marks on your arrogant ass."

Sasuke decided it was time to truly finish the girl off. "I'll make you eat y_**our words!"**_

Yue took a slight step back. While Tayuya's, as well as her own, curse seal forms were something one would expect to find in a nightmare, Sasuke's looked like something that fell from Heaven straight to the bottommost pits of Hell, burning the whole way. A truly twisted angel.

Sasuke practically teleported with his increased speed, smashing his fist into Yue's cheek. She didn't even get a chance to completely reel since Sasuke drove a straight kick into her diaphragm, knocking all the air out of her lungs. To finish her off, he drove a simple straight punch into her chest, sending her flying into a tree with enough force to put her through it.

Yue coughed as she got breath back into her battered body. Within a few moments, Sasuke had completely turned the tide of battle. She only had a few options and only one that would allow her to win.

"_**Do you understand now? I'm superior to even you, hanyō! I have to go because only I can destroy Itachi! I need to be trained by Orochimaru!"**_ Sasuke shouted.

Yue spat up four and a half teeth, then reached into her mouth and pulled the broken one out of her gums. _'Five teeth. It'll take a few days to grow new ones.'_ The girl dragged herself up. "I hate losing. I hate failing. I hate being weak." The girl groaned, feeling like someone had hit her ribs with a steel rod. "I hate being looked down on. I hate being made a fool. Worst of all, I hate being somebody's _**puppet!"**_

Sasuke watched as Yue's skin darkened almost to black, her hair growing to reach her waist while the black turned turned silver and the silver turned a dark blue color. Her tail followed her hair color change. Her slave seal as well as the scar across her neck remained unchanged. She lifted her head and glared at Sasuke. Her left eye was now a bloody dawn color and her right was a venomous neon green now, the sclera a blueish gray. Her bangs had lengthened along with the rest of her hair, almost reaching her jaw. It made her look like a wild beast. Her ears seemed a little larger, but that might just be from the increased fur length. Rather than a cat, she was more like a wild lioness now.

"I must say, those are truly beautiful curse seals."

The two transformed ninja looked to see a man wrapped in bandages, his slitted yellow eyes telling them who it was.

"Orochimaru-sama, should I intervene?" Kabuto asked as he appeared next to his master.

"Kukuku. No, leave them," Orochimaru commanded, "I want to see what they can do."

Yue had only partially awakened her curse seal. She would need its full strength. With Orochimaru here, she shouldn't have any trouble with it, not like with Tayuya. She concentrated chakra into the seal and felt the change complete itself. Her enemies watched as a dark purple, tribal design, mouth-like formation of chakra appeared a few inches off Yue's back. Four bands of chakra quickly shot out from near the corners of the 'mouth.' Her nails became sharper as her canines became true fangs. Even the girl's stance altered to that of a less civilized human.

"Interesting..." Orochimaru hissed. _'I can feel a pull from her. Could it be that she is siphoning the ambient chakra in the area? If so, I guess that means she also pulling in what ninja unconsciously release throughout their whole lives. That's the only explanation for this sensation. What worries me is those bands... What possible use could they have?'_

"_**I'm taking you back home..."**_ Yue growled. She bolted at Sasuke. He caught her wrist, surprised that her claws were just touching his nose.

Sasuke tossed her back, rushed forward and drove a straight punch into her chest. With her coughing, he shot punch after punch into her, enjoying the slight cracks he heard when his knuckles met her torso. _**"Is this the best you can do?"**_ Sasuke asked as he swung his fist directly at her face.

Yue caught his fist, glaring into his sharingan with her own slightly slitted eyes. _**"No, this is!"**_ Yue shouted as Sasuke heard a distant shrieking noise. It got louder and louder until Sasuke realized it was coming from that chakra formation on her back.

"_**What the hell is that?"**_ Sasuke asked. It was piercingly loud now and Sasuke swore that a lesser man would be bleeding from the ears.

"_**Kura Rensa!"**_ Yue roared, a translucent wave of...dark chakra? Whatever it was, it blasted off Yue and hit Sasuke with the force of a rampaging bull. He was thrown a good ten feet, hitting a tree with a painful crack. _**"I can't believe how weak you are!"**_

Sasuke got up, feeling one of his 'wings' sagging slightly. His meeting with the tree obviously broke early, all pun intended. Now that he through of it, the wings only seemed to be shields. Or could he fly with them? He'd need to test that out later. Right now, he had a mangy cat to euthanize.

Sasuke charged forward, striking Yue in her solar plexus, sending her skidding back. She stopped next to her sword and the chakra bands wrapped around the handle. A moment after this, Yue took hold of it and dragged the still heated blade out of the ground.

"Kabuto-kun! Go relieve her of that sword!" Orochimaru commanded. The scales had tipped too far in Yue's favor. Sasuke needed to survive for his plans to work.

"Hai!" the medic called back as he moved forward, chakra scalpels active. When he got close enough, he quickly went around behind the girl and struck, only for the 'mouth' to slam shut on his hand, negating the attack as well as burning and tearing into Kabuto's hand. It released him and he stepped back as the girl turned to face him.

"_**Die already!"**_ Yue shouted as she swung her sword down. Kabuto quickly reactivated his chakra scalpels and caught the blade, hissing in pain as his scalpels ground themselves against either side of the still hot sword.

"S-Sasuke-kun! A little help here!" Kabuto shouted as the blade slid an inch closer.

Yue increased the pressure on Kabuto and a horrible grinding crack was heard as the blade snapped where Kabuto was holding it, allowing the remainder of the sword to go down and leave Kabuto with a major wound to his leg. With Kabuto out of the way, Yue turned her gaze to Orochimaru as she hefted the two foot long remains of Kubikirihōchō. Nobody noticed a few millimeters of the blade regrow from the blood it had spilled.

"Oh? Still want to kill me?" Orochimaru asked in a teasing tone.

Yue pointed the jagged edge of her sword at the man. _**"Naturally. Don't you know? All demons crave blood and death. hanyō decide when, where and who will sate that thirst. Right now, I want to see how long your head will live without a body. Mind if I find out, snake?"**_

Orochimaru made this creepy inhaling hissing noise, a laugh of some sort. "You remind me of me. Come, test to your heart's content," the man offered as he spread his arms wide.

Yue rushed forward, her blade held back to behead the man. While the blade was broken, there was more than enough to cleave off Orochimaru's head or even cut him in two. Either way, he'd die today. She jumped to compensate for her lack of height and swung the blade forward in a slow arc as she twisted her body to add to the force behind the blade.

"_**Chidori!"**_ Sasuke shouted as he appeared before Orochimaru, his hand coated in lightning.

_'Kuh! Can't stop!'_ Yue thought in a panic as the blade plowed forward.

The raiton and sword met, sending a spray of sparks everywhere.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

CLANG!

Yue jolted forward as the two blades split apart, or rather, the remaining half of Kubikirihōchō shattered, leaving Yue with just the handle.

Yue stared at the broken weapon. A part of her knew that the sword didn't stand a chance, but for the entire blade to be destroyed... That sucked! She'd need to resort to...tearing Orochimaru apart with her bare claws! But could she? Well, she'd enjoy trying!

"Kukuku. Looks like you have no means of winning anymore," Orochimaru said from a few inches before the kunoichi, breaking her train of thought.

Kabuto smirked from where he crouched down. "I foresaw this happening. She never was promoted due to her skills."

That caught Yue's attention. _'I wasn't promoted because I was ready? Why the hell was I allowed to go up the ranks then?'_

Sasuke looked over to the medic. _**"What do you mean?"**_

Kabuto adjusted his glasses, a cruel smile playing across his smile. "While I have no evidence to prove it, I believe the council approved of her promotions to either try and make her into a weapon or they wanted her dead. Giving her a higher rank would allow one or the other to happen much easier." He chuckled a bit to himself. "They might try this method with Naruto-kun next."

Yue felt the barely contained despair and pain break through the dam she had constructed so long ago. She felt the crushing darkness within her grow and grow until she felt herself plunging through a chasm she had no hope of ever escaping.

She touched down.

"What?" Yue gasped as she looked around. It was hard to believe that this...desolate, blasted wasteland had anything to do with her. Maybe she finally snapped and went psycho. If that was the case, she may be snapping Orochimaru and Kabuto's spines now. Hopefully, somebody would show up and put her down before she turned to Sasuke.

"This is your soul."

Yue turned towards the voice, finding nothing more than more ruined landscape. Wait, was that a building in the distance? Maybe someone could help her there...

"There is no need to go there at the moment. You and me have business."

Once more, Yue turned to try and confront the speaker and found nobody around. "Where are you? Show yourself!" Yue demanded.

"Down here."

Yue looked down and was shocked to see water below her, and her own reflection. "Where are you?"

"Let me come up there," her reflection said as the water turned completely black. Yue quickly jumped off the water, worried that something was about to happen to her. The water rose up to about her height and form, then fell away to reveal...herself?

The girl before Yue wore a simple black dress with thin straps holding it up at the shoulders, the bottommost hem ending about halfway down her thighs. Her hair was just as long as Yue's was now, but the style was different, hiding the girl's face with wild locks. The girl's tail sported silver fur on the tip, as Yue's would when it grew back. The curse seal as well as Yue's seal were completely visible, glowing even through the dress.

Yue's idle thoughts completely blundered their way out her mouth. "You missing these teeth?" Yue asked, then hooked a finger into her mouth and pulled slightly at her lip to expose the missing teeth.

The dress wearing Yue seemed surprised and used her tongue to explore for a moment, then nodded. "I'm a mirror image of you, so why wouldn't I be missing teeth?"

Yue pointed at the tail. "That isn't mirrored."

The other Yue pointed as well, though it was to the original's tail. "You sure about that?"

Yue looked down and saw that when her hair had lengthened from the curse seal, the fur on her tail had restored itself as well. "Hey! That's cool! Accelerated healing upon activating the curse seal. I wonder if that was planned?"

The other Yue frowned. "We don't have time to fool around or act stupid. I have an offer for you."

Yue looked back up at her doppelganger. "Okay... First; who are you? What are you doing in my... my soul?" It still felt odd calling this blasted scape her soul. Was it really this bad?

As if reading her mind, the other Yue spoke up. "Trust me, this is actually one of the nicest parts of your soul. Don't go towards that building. That's the worst area: your memories, torments and guilt. As for your questions, well, I'm your demonic half and I've always been here, though I was sleeping a while ago."

"Oh, so you're my demonic half. Makes sense. So- Wait! What!" Yue gasped. If her demonic half was awakening, she might be in a lot of trouble.

"Relax," Demon Yue said, "unlike other demons, I just want to sleep inside your pleasant memories."

Yue's stance didn't relax, if fell apart at the sudden release of tension. "Sleep...in my memories... What the hell is going on?"

Demon Yue turned and looked into the 'sky,' which made Yue realize that there were actually islands floating in that strange ether. "Most demons feed off anger and sadness, but I became attracted to your few happy memories. Rather than rage around and try to alter your will towards causing death and mayhem, I decided to surround myself those bright memories, allowing them to lull me into a peaceful slumber." The feral girl turned to her other half. "But the curse seal woke me up, its corrupted power acting like an annoying sun of shadows that I can't avoid."

Yue then saw that there was indeed a 'black sun' in the sky, one that was the same pattern as the curse seal. "That's fucked up..."

Demon Yue nodded as she sighed. "Being awake all this time is annoying, but that stupid sun doesn't let me sleep. Like I was saying earlier; I think it's time that you fully embrace my half of the blood in your veins."

Yue snapped her gaze to her 'darker' half. "Uh, I do. I'm more like a jinchūriki than Naruto is."

Demon Yue chuckled a bit. "That's true, but you are only embracing the flesh, not the blood and the power that comes with it. Here's my deal: I'll give you the knowledge of all the power our demon blood holds while you keep control. You can view me as something like a jinchūriki's bijū prisoner: a source of power and possible advice. A soundboard if you will."

"Why are you doing this?" Yue asked.

"Because, like you, I'm in love with Yamanaka Ino and I want her to be happy. I also don't think I can cope with the world half as well you do," the demon admitted, "after a week, I'd have run away and lived like a wild beast or fuck someone up like no tomorrow. In fact, there would be no tomorrow for the pathetic bastard..."

Yue thought about it for a few moments, then nodded slightly. "Yeah, the world really can be a bit too much to deal with sometimes, especially when almost everyone and everything hates you. Sooooo, how does this work?"

Demon Yue stepped back slightly as the pool of water beneath her feet widened. "Just stand here and take my hands."

Yue did as she was told, finding it odd to hold her own hands, in a sense. "Now what?"

The demon smiled. "Now you gain use of your full power. As an added bonus, I'll give you a small taste of the power you can truly wield if you accept everything about yourself." A different colored flame rose from each hand.

"Wha-?" Yue asked, but the black water surged out as a geyser of darkness, swallowing both halves of Yue. It rose up and struck the sky, forcing it from twilight to the darkest of nights. The curse seal sun turned red as black and white chains burst from beneath the ground, forcing fragments of earth into the air as water flooded in, creating a lake of blackness. There was no shore, just land a few inches below the surface of the water. The chains wrapped around some of the debris they had thrown into the sky, anchoring it. The fragments that weren't caught started to revolve, slowly, creating a tunnel into the air. The building rose up through the center of this slow tornado of chaos, stopping near the highest bit of floating earth.

Yue's soul was now complete, or was it?

_[Outside Yue's soul]_

"Come Sasuke-kun, there are no obstacles left to your growth," Orochimaru stated as he motioned Sasuke to walk passed the emotionally wrecked girl.

Sasuke nodded and walked up towards his new sensei. Kabuto hobbled over, the wound proving to be deep enough to have nicked the bone.

Just as Kabuto and Sasuke were astride the girl, Orochimaru felt a sense of extreme danger. "Sasuke-kun! Kabuto! Get away from her!"

The two didn't even get a chance to move as the air temperature shot up. Before they knew it, a flash of fire shot out sending them flying in opposite directions. When the intense light and flames died down, Orochimaru looked through them to see his latest test subject standing in the middle of a crater.

With a flaming black sword in her right hand.

_'The heat from that blade is strange...'_ Orochimaru thought as he stared at the girl's weapon. Truthfully, he had seen something similar to it before. He realized that there actually was no physical sword, just black fire in the shape of a sword. "What is that?" he asked.

Yue said nothing, just hissed as some sort of black mist started to come off her body. It thickened until it looked like some kind of wispy shadow-like smoke. When it seemed to reach a peak, Yue jumped forward, far faster than before, and swung her fire sword down. Orochimaru dodged, but the sword impacting the ground caused it to flare, throwing burning earth and spurts of fire all over.

"Kabuto! Sasuke-kun!" the still weakened Orochimaru called. He knew that it would take one hit from this unusual weapon and the girl would...burn him in half. He had yet to fully adjust this body, so he couldn't utilize his full abilities.

A pained groan was heard from Kabuto's direction as the gray haired medic sat up. He had been closer and, without a curse seal and his previous injuries, couldn't take that explosion and the sudden impact with one or more trees while riding the shock wave. It would take a bit of time for him to get on his feet.

Sasuke came out of the trees, limping slightly. He glared at the girl, then his eyes widened. _**"What the hell...is that thing in her hand!"**_ To him, the chakra was almost as solid as that strange ball jutsu Naruto used during their fight. He didn't see it as a regular jutsu of pure fire-like chakra, he saw a solid sword of chakra with a chakra flames around it.

Yue rushed at Orochimaru again, seemingly driven on instinct. She swung at his neck sideways again, but the man dropped under the blade and smiled when Sasuke got behind the girl and delivered a punch to her shoulder. With Sasuke there, Orochimaru moved away from the two.

Yue and Sasuke were reaching their limits. Sasuke could feel a dull ache in his neck and those wings of his felt like they were vibrating in pain. Yue's left hand, which still gripped the handle of Kubikirihōchō, twitched on occasion. Her tail and ears also twitched, a sign of pain if she truly was that cat-like. Either that or she was annoyed with Orochimaru. Sasuke decided it was both.

"_**Make yourself useful and give me strength,"**_ Yue growled as the chakra bands snapped at Kabuto, the girl obviously falling to the corruption of the curse seal, or maybe it was this new power of hers. Either way, the medic tried to dodge, but the bands caught him and wrapped around his arms. Kabuto stiffened as wisps of blue light were dragged into the bands and they flowed down and into Yue. **_"So little chakra, but I'll have to make due."_**

_'So she can directly siphon chakra through those bands. I wonder what else she can do,'_ Orochimaru thought, then wondered if Sasuke would exhibit similar traits with the same seal. He couldn't wait to find out! What shocked him was the bands changing on the ends, forming crude hands that were completely flat. _'Interesting. The curse seal is maturing.'_

Sasuke wasted no time and rushed at the girl, completely heedless of her sword. He stopped and dodged to the side when he came into range, his seals finished as he passed by and put his hand to his mouth. _**"Gōkakyū no jutsu!"**_

Yue swung her flame sword into the oncoming fireball, cutting and destroying it. She jumped back and swung her arm, smashing Kubikirihōchō's pommel into Sasuke's head.

Orochimaru chuckled. "I made the right choice, marking you. I can't wait to take you apart. Or maybe you will be more useful as one of my future hosts? That would let me fully test my curse seal of fate, my answer to taking over the sharingan with no risk."

"_**I'm going to kill you,"**_ Yue growled as the flame sword flared, then broke apart and vanished. She put the broken handle of Kubikirihōchō into her belt and picked up a fragment of the shattered sword. She took hold of her lengthened hair and slashed it, leaving herself with uneven hair, even a few long strands on her left side. **_"I need more chakra,"_** she said as she wrapped the hair around her arm.

Orochimaru smirked, wondering what was going on. He watched as the hair started to glow slightly, then broke apart as Yue released the chakra from her cut hair. _'Oh! So she can reclaim the chakra that was expended to grow her hair? That's an interesting trick,'_ Orochimaru thought, He had heard of medics doing similar things, but it was mostly just them breaking the cells down and reforming them in wounds as a substitute for lost flesh. It seemed that Yue could break down her hair to draw out any residual chakra left in it. Now that he thought about it, Kabuto mentioned something about Yue knowing some very basic medical jutsu.

Yue ran forward, gathering the chakra to her palm. While it wasn't much, she figure it would be enough to do something. A spiral of black and silver appeared, then the seal corrupted it and it turned a dirty gray color, becoming less stable and more powerful. _**"Save a spot for me in Hell!"**_ Yue shouted as she jumped up and thrust her hand forward, aiming for Orochimaru's face.

Sasuke appeared before the man, the incomplete rasengan aimed for his chest. He took it full on, the jutsu tearing into his chest and leaving a shallow spiral wound in its place. Yue's curse seal canceled itself out, leaving the girl with no power at all. Sasuke, in spite of the pain, backhanded the girl away and then formed his corrupted chidori again. _**"Killing you will show Konoha my true intent."**_

Yue tried to get up, but stumbled and fell to her knees again. _'End of the line, I guess...'_ the hanyō thought as Sasuke bore down on her.

Two bolts of lightning chose that moment to strike into the clearing.

_[Konoha]_

Kakashi came back through the gates with a heavily restrained female chūnin. He had a grim look on his face, one that made Sakura and Ino worry.

Sakura ran over to him. "Sensei! Where are Sasuke-kun and Yue?"

Kakashi looked down at her, pain in his single eye, then looked away. He then noticed Ino. "Both of you, to the Hokage's office. Now!" He flipped the unconscious woman onto his shoulder and took to the rooftops.

Sakura and Ino traded a look, then ran to the office. When they arrived, they were sent through faster than bad milk through the digestive system. They found themselves in the room with a bandaged Naruto, Shikamaru, Gaara, Lee, Kakashi, Anko, Jiraiya, an old man who greatly resembled Teuchi, the chūnin from before and another female chūnin around Yue's age.

"What's going on?" Shikamaru asked.

Tsunade sighed. "Kazeneko Yue was killed by Uchiha Sasuke roughly three hours ago."

Everyone except for Tsunade, the old man, the restrained woman, the young chūnin and Kakashi looked down. Kakashi frowned, knowing it was his own technique that ended the girl's life. Shikamaru felt his new found resolve crack at the knowledge that his first chūnin mission had ended with the death of one person under his command. Naruto was completely silent, sad that he had lost a friend and mentor.

The old man sighed as he stood up and went to the door. "I don't need any of this. I've got a weapon to finish making for Yue."

"Hyou-san, she was murdered, no, brutally executed by Sasuke. What part of that do you not understand?" Kakashi asked.

The man, Hyou, looked back. "Unlike my bro, Teuchi, I never had a loving wife or a beautiful daughter. That annoying, uncute tomboy is the closest thing I've got to a family. I've heard that when you lose somebody important to you, you can feel it. I don't feel nothin' except a slight hangover and the need to drink it away while pounding on some steel or tinkering with some gears. That's how I know she's still alive. That Baka-neko is counting on me to make her a weapon that suits her completely. I may be a drunken smith living from one bottle to the next, but I ain't abandoning the only person who cared enough about me to drag my sorry ass back to the workroom...after burning all my rum... Damn cat." He then left.

"S-She's dead?" Ino asked, shocked.

Anko stomped in Ino direction. "So you wanted her to get that little fuck up, huh?" the slightly insane kunoichi asked, "because of you-"

Kakashi quickly restrained and gagged Anko, knowing that the woman was about to make Ino into a pin cushion or slap the life out of her.

"I can't believe that she had to fall for such a selfish little girl," Anko growled as she tried to break free of Kakashi, trying her best to kick far enough to hit the blonde before her. "Not only did you trample all over her feelings by ignoring her, you also forced her to kill herself so she could bring that brat back! He's just anger and talent! I don't even think he has a heart!"

"What? I don't know what's going on anymore..." Sakura said in confusion.

"Those marks on Yue's face were a special type of seal," Jiraiya explained, "the person who Yue formed a contract with, Ino in this case, had the ability to command her." He looked at Ino. "Did you ever ask her go get Sasuke? Did you tell her to?"

Ino shook her head.

"Then she did it on her own," Jiraiya grimly stated, "the things one will do out of love. She truly didn't care for herself, only Ino's well being and happiness." He looked over at the pictures of the Hokage, a specific blond to be exact. _'Had you lived, I wonder if you would have trained your best friend's daughter alongside your own son. She has some of your talent and Naruto has your determination. Sadly, both her and Naruto were nowhere near as blessed in the head as you. At least Naruto seems to have inherited your ability to charm women, though he inherited Kushina's inability to know when a person is romantically interested in them. Poor gaki.'_ He remembered how it took Kushina falling in love with Minato for her to realize that the young man loved her as well.

Ino looked around at everyone present and saw them blaming themselves, all except for the two female chūnin. "What's with you two?" she asked them.

The older one smiled. "That halfbreed whore should have been put down three years ago, no, she should never have been born. We never needed that _thing._ If Urami-sama had of beheaded her in the streets, Konoha probably wouldn't have lost Yondaime-sama. I'll even go so far as to blame every wrong that has happened to Konoha in the last sixteen years on her birth! I'm proud that Sasuke-san finally put that thing down! I would have done it myself, but-"

Bam!

Tsunade, disgusted, had knocked the woman out with a less than gentle punch. She then turned her gaze to the younger chūnin.

"I'm Lina, Yue's teammate from when we were genin," the girl stated with a polite bow, "she murdered our teammate and was never made to fully pay for her crime. While the method was wrong, justice has finally been served and our teammate can peacefully rest in the afterlife now that his killer is gone." Lina then turned to Ino and smiled slightly. "I thank you for forcing your will upon her, even if it was indirectly. Without that, I have no doubt that she would still be alive."

Ino was bewildered and angry. She decided to vent her feelings on this uncaring young woman.

"Hokage-sama," Lina started, "Uchiha Sasuke should be brought back to Konoha to be held accountable for abandoning our village, conspiring with an S-rank missing-nin, assault on Haruno Sakura, assault on Uzumaki Naruto and the murder of Kazeneko Yue. I request this assignment."

To say everyone present was shocked at the young woman's request was an understatement. "Why?" Tsunade asked.

"Even if the person killed is a murderer, their killer needs to answer for their crimes. Unless it is sanctioned that Sasuke was to be Yue's executioner, then he is committing a crime punishable by law," Lina explained.

"Such a foolish child."

Everyone turned to see Urami himself step out of the shadows wearing a full jōnin uniform. "I found these at the battle site," he said as he placed a forehead protector and several pieces of metal on the desk. The forehead protector's plate was dented, nicked and scraped in places, indicating that it was Yue's. She was the only ninja in Konoha, other than the deceased Sandaime, who never had their forehead protector repaired every once in a while. There were new battle scars on it in the form of a slanted, two centimeter slash straight through the metal above the leaf symbol and a deep scratch from one side that almost reached the same symbol. The fragments were of Kubikirihōchō, the sword Yue received from Zabuza back in Wave. Judging by the amount of metal here, they had everything except the handle.

"At least we have something to bury," Urami muttered as his fingers gently stroked his niece's forehead protector, "Hokage-sama, please allow this to be enshrined next to her father. I also request to have her mother's ashes to be put to rest next to her, so that Yue can be surrounded by the parents I stole from her."

"Enshrined?" Sakura and Lina asked.

Urami nodded. "Clan heads of the Ruuko are generally burned after death and their ashes are stored in a small shrine rather than being buried. Her father is waiting for her and his wife. I hope that, at the very least, this is enough to atone for my crimes against them."

"Yue was a clan head?" Sakura asked.

"Her father, Ruuko Nozomu, wished for her to be clan head after he stepped down. By right of blood, she should have been clan head last year, but I kept her heritage a secret for selfish reasons." Urami turned back to Tsunade, "can I bury them in my lands?"

Tsunade waved her hand weakly. "They are your grounds and the people are of your clan, so you may do as you wish."

"No," he said forcefully, "I wronged all three, so I have no right to make decisions as to what happens to them now."

"Then I give you my leave," Tsunade said. Urami bowed, took the items and went to leave.

"Wait," Ino called, "can others attend her funeral?"

Urami looked back and nodded. "She deserves to have those who cared for her to be present." With that, he faded into the shadows.

_[Two days later]_

Ino and many others were attending the funeral for Kazeneko Yue, heir to the Ruuko. Ino's father had given her a talk about their clan's techniques and the responsibility that she bore when controlling another, but he found that her guilt had done more than he could have imagined. Ino still learned the Yamanaka jutsu, but it seemed that she couldn't use the ones that allowed her to have direct control of a person. When she tried, she stalled the jutsu with fear at what could go wrong, making it fail. It was a paralyzing condition that she may never recover from.

A look over the small gathering revealed Anko, who was close to broken over the loss of the only person she came to care for after Orochimaru betrayed her. Lina was present as well, though she seemed oddly sad for someone who hated the girl. Ino figured that the girl was wearing a mask to try and detach herself from her feelings for her now deceased teammate, all so that she wouldn't get hurt anymore.

Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi were the closest to the small shrine. Naruto and Sakura held Yue's forehead protector. They were called forward to place the object within the small shrine and closed it, signifying the burial of the girl. Hyou had been given the shattered blade of Kubikirihōchō as a memento and proof that the girl was dead. He accepted them, but insisted Yue was alive.

"Bwaaaaa!"

Everyone turned to see Lee and Guy holding each other tightly while creating a small pond with their combined tears. "Yue-kun's youthful flames were blown out!" Guy wailed.

"I will redouble my training to continue on for myself and Yue-san!" Lee wailed back. This led to their usual, creepy male bonding moment, which everyone ignored.

"Hey bitch."

Ino turned to see Kai standing behind her, glaring daggers at her. "While I didn't like her much, she was my cousin and a fine warrior," he said, "you fuck around with someone like that again and so help me, I'll spill your guts in front of everyone in Konoha."

Ino looked down in shame. "I know that already..."

He snorted. "Just making sure." He left to offer up a prayer for the girl he treated so badly, asking her to forgive him for being such an ass. He then placed the hilt of a small sword into a shallow well before the shrine, asking the girl to forgive him for what he had done to her.

"What is that?" Ino asked.

Kai turned to her. "The Ruuko are enshrined after their bodies are cremated. Every shrine has a small well made before it, large enough to accommodate most weapons. Those who had wronged the Ruuko and seek atonement place the weapon that started the problem within the well and ask for forgiveness. Each well is attached to a cistern by way of an underground pipe system," he explained, "old legends state that a weapon that hasn't been ruined in five years means the Ruuko has lain a curse on the blade's former user. You can guess what I hope to see in five years time."

"A rusty sword..." Ino muttered.

"Right," Kai said with a nod, "but a part of me hopes that I find my sword in perfect condition, since I deserve to be cursed for my actions..." The youth walked away.

Ino thought for a few moments and pulled out the last kunai she had from the Chūnin Exams, the very weapon she intended to use if she needed to fight at that time. She looked around, then threw the weapon into the well. "Yue... I'm sorry for what I did...please..." Ino stopped, feeling like she didn't have any right to beg the girl to forgive her. How could a person forgive the one who sent them to their death? Kai might deserve a curse, but Ino already had one. Yue had cursed her and locked away the Shintenshin no jutsu and any other that allowed her to fully possess a person.

And she deserved it.

_[A few minutes after the funeral]_

Naruto was trudging away. He had lost half his team in two days and he feared he would lose the girl he loved too. She blamed him for not bringing Sasuke back to her. Probably blamed him for Yue's death as well, though she probably put part of the blame on Kakashi as well, who went to talk with Anko for a few minutes before leaving.

"Gaki..."

Naruto looked over his shoulder and saw the toad sage standing behind him, dressed in a solemn red kimono.

Jiraiya had chosen to actually dress like a normal person for this, since he had probably been part of what led to her death. His insults, his ignorance to her emotional state. Had he been clear headed and not so focused on getting back at Orochimaru, he probably wouldn't have been poisoned by Tsunade and he would have seen the signs of Yue using a high class jutsu that would drain her of her strength enough for the snake to mark her. If only he had noticed, maybe Orochimaru would be dead and Sasuke and Yue would still be in village, alive and well.

"What?" Naruto asked, tired, sad and injured.

Jiraiya swallowed hard. "Listen, I know it might seem sudden, but I was thinking of taking you out of Konoha for a while..." 

Naruto rounded on the man as quickly as he could. "No. I need to train so I can bring Sasuke back to Sakura. If I'm not in Konoha, then I'll never know if he reappears. I don't have time to go around with you. Orochimaru could steal Sasuke's body at anytime."

"Relax," Jiraiya said, "that jutsu can only be used every three years or so, meaning Sasuke is safe for that long. I was going to train you, seriously this time, as well as help you protect those you care for." 

"How can I protect anyone when I'm not here?" Naruto demanded.

"Akatsuki is after you and they will burn this village to the ground and kill all the villagers to get at you. If I take you out of here and keep moving around while training you, they will leave this village and you alone," Jiraiya explained.

Naruto thought of it for a few moments, then nodded. "Fine, I'll go. And I want to learn elemental jutsu."

Jiraiya stared at the boy, his mind blanked at the sudden request. "Why?"

Naruto looked down at his own hand and clenched it into a fist. "Regular jutsu are powerful, so is the Rasengan, but I've seen the power a ninja has when they tap into the elements. If I am going to bring Sasuke back, I'll need that strength."

Jiraiya thought about it for a moment or two. He was going to teach the kid various things, but elemental jutsu was not on that list. Other than teaching the boy the toad style, he would teach him a few jutsu of whatever element Naruto showed promise with. Unfortunately, he would need to pick up some chakra paper before leaving. In the end, it would greatly benefit Naruto in his defense against Akatsuki and Madara, wherever that ancient relic was. It might also help him finish the Rasengan, something his father never got to do.

"Fine," Jiraiya said with a smirk, "I'll see you when you're done healing, which should be tomorrow if that fur ball you can't cough up does its job right."

_[Next day, gates of Konoha]_

The two were about to leave the village when Naruto looked at Jiraiya, suddenly realizing something. "Hey Ero-sennin."

Jiraiya sighed. If Naruto did become Hokage, he would probably carve that into Jiraiya's headstone rather than his name. "What is it gaki?" Jiraiya's petty revenge would be calling Naruto a brat until he managed to score with a woman.

"Why are you training me?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya wanted to tell the kid all the truths the boy had been denied: his parents, the prophecy, Yue's promise to Naruto when they first met years ago and him feeling like he owed the deceased girl. Then again, he was Jiraiya, the Sannin of toads and the author of the most perverted smut series ever. "Because without me, you'd only make perverted ninjutsu and get coddled by ANBU guards."

Naruto stared at him flatly. "Why do I feel like I'm still going to learn perverted stuff?"

Jiraiya laughed nervously. "I'll teach you all I know about ninjutsu! And women!"

"No thanks Ero-sennin, just teach me jutsu," Naruto deadpanned.

Jiraiya fake pouted. "Don't know what you're missing out on, gaki."

The two left the village and wouldn't be seen for two and a half years.

Deep below Konoha, a chūnin sat in her cell and chuckled to herself. "Sasuke-sama, that chidori must have effortlessly cut through her sword and ended the demon's life. Please slay the Kyūbi too, for Konoha."

**A/N~**

I had to rewrite this chapter since it lacked the flare I wanted. (read: sucked) Still can't get rid of this nagging feeling that I could have done better with this chapter, but agonizing over this isn't going to get the story written, so on with the show.

Which sounds more interesting: a slightly reshaped Kubikirihōchō or a new shape for the blade? Either way, it will have a new power. The reason why it gains a new power will be shown soon.

**Another thing, the next chapter or two will contain somewhat disturbing child abuse. Yue is a character with depth and you are about to see how she got shaped into the powerful, but emotionally shattered kunoichi she is. Like I said, it is disturbing and contains: starvation, emotional abuse, a child locked in a cage, educational abuse and child neglect. If any of that is too much for you, skip the next chapter. You'll miss out on her early years though.**

The list of girls who want Naruto has returned, for I hath found a new girl! I had another girl to add, but the power flickered out long enough to knock out my computer and I lost it. As soon as I find that girl's name, I think my list will be complete. Naruto really has the potential to become a harem king.

Girls that want to jump Naruto's bones, possibly one after the other and watching the whole time-

Sakura

Hinata

Isarabi

Hokuto

Koyuki

Amaru

Shion

Haruna

Ino

Nazuna

Shizuka [anime only]

Naruto: Another list of my female friends? Why did you post it again? Wait, isn't that last one the girl Ero-sennin said would marry his student because of some law in her village? We're just friends, and she's getting stronger for her people.

Excele: ...Are you really that stupid?

Ino: Yeah, he is that dumb.

Sakura: Possibly dumber than you two are thinking.

Ino: I think Sakura's right. I saw a girl blatantly trying her hardest to seduce him a while ago and he didn't even notice it.

Naruto: She just wanted directions, that's all. She should really go to a clothing store or something since her clothes are too hot for Konoha's weather.

Sakura, Ino and Excele: '_I can't believe it. He IS that stupid when it comes to women...'_

Off to the side, Jiraiya shakes his head in shame.

Character Intro-

Ichiraku Hyou: Ichiraku Teuchi's younger brother and a brilliant smith and gadgetry master. One of his weapons was used to kill his brother's wife, so he started drinking the guilt away. He quickly became Konoha's town drunk, but Yue used all his alcohol to create a bonfire and then forced him to start making weapons again, but only for her. Despite their arguments, the two saw each other as family they never had. Hyou willingly claims that Yue is like a daughter to him, but will later say that it was drunken rambling if Yue confronts him about it.

Currently trying to make a weapon for his 'daughter,' who he believes is still alive. He knows that, no matter what, Yue will never use his weapons to take innocent lives.

Favorite drinks: Pretty much anything with a decent alcohol content, but prefers rum.

Favorite food: any meat that can be cooked in a skillet or pot (because they can be marinated with alcohol)

Theme song: Easier To Run by Linkin Park

Catch phrase: "Yue's coming. Need to hide the rum... -hic-"

Ability Index-

**Triple Affinities:** Rather than learn, it is more like the rare triple affinity ninja almost effortlessly absorbs and improves techniques related to their aligned element. The jutsu they produce are also stronger than normal. The sheer power has been partially explained, but only for three elements so far. Triple fire users tend to produce the two hottest flames, white or blue. Triple water users were able to bind even the water molecules in the atmosphere to fuel their suiton or even partially manipulate the liquids within a living body. Triple lightning users control the more powerful and dangerous positive lightning.

(positive lightning is six to ten times stronger than regular 'negative' lightning)

Jutsu Index-

**Cursed Seal of Fate (Yue):** A seal that is supposed to make it easier for Orochimaru to take over a body. It is unknown how this is done though.

When active at level 2, the curse seal starts sapping ambient chakra into the user and it can also directly sap chakra through the chakra arms. The arms can also remove a certain amount of weight from objects they hold, but it is unknown exactly how much. The 'mouth' of the seal is capable of discharging large amounts of corrupted chakra to form a shield of power. (This is all related to Yue's version of the seal and may not apply to any else who gets this seal)

Technique Index-

**Kura Rensha** [Dark Burst]: A technique only usable by Yue in her curse seal form. The mouth screams, producing a wave of negative chakra. The chakra passes through living material, leaving no visible damage, but still hits with a large amount of force. Can be used as a shield against some jutsu. Doesn't harm Yue. This is not ninjutsu.

**Responses-**

**thedarkpokemaster:** You are right about Naruto thinking Sakura hates him, because he is an idiot who hasn't noticed that Sakura is changing. I am not saying anything about the other pairing because too much would be spoiled by talking. Let's just say that Yue's relationships undergo a tremendous change, possibly and earth shattering change.

**9-tailed reaper:** Orochimaru is smart and would never reveal all his cards to anyone except Kabuto and his precious ass monkey -er, Sasuke. Therefor, Tayuya's only contributions would be her combat ability. But wait! She wasn't mentioned or brought in, what could have happened to her? (grins evilly)

**Auctor:** I decided that, contrary to her foul mouth, her mind would be much more mature and calm. I actually find it fun to write Tayuya because she is a reverse of Sakura, loud and proud on the outside while calm and collected on the inside.

**SuperNeos2:** Nah, he was desperate for a wife. Every other girl told him to go jump off a cliff.

**Sky Zephyrus:** And I hope that is the last time I follow that fight so close to canon. It bugged me a lot, but the changes are supposed to be subtle, such as Naruto realizing that he and Sasuke weren't alike as well as him being more aggressive in his fight.

As for Yue's identity as a Ruuko... (checks other reviews) Wow, no 'I saw this coming a mile away, or 'I never would have guessed' posts. I made it quite obvious at points that her relationship with the Ruuko clan was deeper than that of a prisoner and jailer. Heck, I almost threw out a flag that said her last name was originally Ruuko. Hope her being the rightful head of the Ruuko clan was a surprise.

**DarkLordK:** Thanks for deciding to check out my future fics. I don't know when I'll post them, but it is a long ways off. I'd like to at least get this fic close to the end before I post another serious fic.

Yue isn't completely based off Kishimoto's drawing style. She is actually composed of a mix of Naruto and Lucky Star styles, to some degree. Here's a little tip for Part II. Yue's hair somewhat resembles one of her sources of inspiration: Izumi Konata. Yue even has hair antenna, though not as large as Konata's and it is a bit closer to the front. There is even a Lucky Star wallpaper that features a cat eared Konata whose ears are the same size as Yues ears. (her ears are a bit big)

**xXxWhiteWolf14xXx:** Sorry for the long wait, but I couldn't get this chapter to where I wanted it to be. Damn Sasuke is too weak... (catches emopants' chokutō and kicks him in the nads)

**Sariko-chan723:** Wow, never thought someone would use that much emotion in a review, without flaming me to Hell and back. I appreciate it and I hope that the filler chapters and Part II keep amazing you.

**RocketShippingFan:** I make you feel bad for Naruto and then I KILL OFF MY OWN OC! EVIL PLAN SUC- Okay, that's enough idiocy in my responses. Yes, Naruto did have a hard time, but Part I isn't completely over yet. The filler ends with the finale of Sasuke and Yue's battle, revealing their fates.

**NaruSakuFan 100:** Sakura will try to make Naruto feel better, but we all know how Naruto is. Truth be told, Naruto didn't give Sakura a chance to say anything to him before he left. Sakura will get back at him for that, but would that be a good thing to do?


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Revolving Lantern – Spirit of light

Note: Welcome to Yue's personal arc: the revolving lantern. (and what I believe might be the two worst chapters in this fic so far) This is her past, the events that made her grow into who she is. Enjoy Yue's rise from a nobody to become the "Feral Feline" under Anko's crazy wings. And please excuse me if it sucks, I already rewrote this chapter once and I just expanded on it and made it less like a bunch of flashing memories.

**Disclaimer: If it isn't in canon, it's mine! Saying that, the Naruto manga isn't mine!**

She sat up, wondering what was going on. She had no memories or knowledge to tell her anything. She looked around, seeing that she was in a large cage with heavy iron bars. The young hanyō, who would later learn her name was Kazeneko Yue, crawled over to the door and grabbed it, using it as support to get on her feet. She tried to open the door, but found it locked.

A bright flash filled the room as a light was turned on. Yue squinted through the light until she could see. A man walked in, Ruuko Urami. In his hand was a cupcake with a single candle on it. He came within arm's reach of the cage and lit the candle, then lay the treat on the ground. He turned his back on her and said, "happy birthday Yue, you're five years old now."

"Myuuuu!" the girl mewled.

The man flinched, then walked over to the stairs. He gripped the rail tightly and whispered something so quietly that a normal human wouldn't have caught it, but Yue's sensitive cat ears twitched as she caught parts of it.

"I...so...you...I...for...day...I...bye."

The man went up the stairs and closed the door, turning the light off again. Yue stared at the cupcake for a while, wondering what she had to do with the burning stick on top the food. She wanted to wait for the stick to burn out, but she was tired, so she crawled into the back to sleep.

Later, she would wake up to find a dead rat near her cage, cupcake crumbs on its whiskers.

_[A week later]_

Yue awoke to the feel of warmth and pain. She shrieked as she felt the pain again and shied away from it.

"Stop moving!"

Yue looked through the bars and saw a young man with a katana that suited his small body. He looked similar to the man from before, but much younger and less severe looking. While she looked at him, he jabbed at her shoulder with his weapon, drawing a small amount of red liquid with the barely sharp weapon. "Anyaa nyan!" Yue wailed as she shuffled away from the boy.

"I told you to stay still!" the boy shouted as he quickly rushed along the outside of the cage, jabbing his blade at her again when he was close to her, cutting her leg a bit.

"NYAAA! MYUUU! NYAAA!" Yue wailed, hoping someone would hear her and stop him, but nobody came and he kept hurting her.

When Yue learned that he only had a certain reach with his weapon, the girl with the plain black dress held on by thin shoulder straps stayed just out of his range.

The boy realized what was going on and huffed. "Dammit, it's smarter than it looks." He switched his grip slightly on his next swing, grazing the cat girl's forehead, leaving a permanent scar that would change that patch of her black hair silver for the rest of her life.

"MYUU!" Yue shrieked as she shot away from the blade. The wounds were so shallow that they healed almost instantly, but it still hurt to get cut and jabbed at.

The boy saw an opening and his hand shot at the girl, grabbing her ankle and dragging her close to the bars. "Finally, a real demon to practice on," the boy gleefully said as he switched the grip on his little sword, "stay still so I can learn about killing you demons."

Yue screamed as she kicked at the bar to push away, a bright light filling the room, quickly followed by a low hum and the boy screaming as he went through spasm after spasm. Loud cracks were heard as several bright showers of sparks shot off various spots on the cage.

Urami burst through the door and looked at what was going on. "is that...discharge?" he gasped, then grabbed a folded wooden chair. He got over to his son and lightly swung the chair at him, knocking the boy away from the bars, freeing him from the electrical circuit he had become a part of.

"Naah?" Yue mewled from the cage, staying well away from the bars, not that it would matter with Urami's sword.

Urami looked over at the girl, then looked down at his son. "This shouldn't have happened," he muttered, then picked up his son and left. Later that day, Yue heard a loud whining noise and the sound of something heavy hitting wood.

She hoped she wasn't in trouble.

_[A month later]_

Bang! Thump! Thump!

"Hokage-sama! Please, don't-" Urami started.

"Be quiet!" a gruff voice boomed, "I told you I felt chakra coming from your home that did not feel like anyone who is known to live in Konoha!"

"I already told you that it was me practicing a new chakra control method so I can perfect a new kenjutsu technique I'm creating," Urami protested.

"Let me guess; you do it down in your pad locked basement?" the gruff man questioned.

A bang and rattling was heard from the door to the basement. "Alright, I'll admit that I practiced it down there. The reason the chakra felt odd is because I have a demon down there and the room is heavily sealed so its yōki doesn't escape and affect the populace. I need to focus the chakra properly, even in the face of a strong demon," Urami quickly stated.

"Oh, is that so?" the gruff man asked, "then I must inspect the seals, since the demon seems to be wearing them down and you obviously don't have the talent with fūinjutsu to maintain the seals."

A loud bang was heard, then light shone in from the door leading to Yue's prison. The girl, as usual, got up and held the bars, looking pitiful. It was almost time for her to be fed for the day and she was hungry. Sometimes the man left her more if she looked as pathetic as she really was.

An old man wearing a red robe with a white under it down the stairs. He had a hat on his head with the word 'fire' written on it, though Yue wouldn't know that for almost a year.

"So this is the demon you..." the old man stopped, turned on a light and walked closer to the cage so he could see better.

Yue looked up into the man's eyes, a part of her telling her that the man before her was far stronger than the two people she knew existed. As a show of respect, she kept her ears perked up and her tail still, showing no signs of aggression, fear or indifference. Powerful beings deserved all the attention you could give them. Showing fear to a greater being meant offering your life to them. The demonic instincts within Yue were unusually strong, strong enough to give her some semblance of reason.

The man reached out, smiling kindly after the girl flinched away. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you," he assured the girl. She trusted the man's lack of killing intent and he lightly held her chin and turned her head slightly, so the light fell entirely on her right eye. He turned the girl's face so he could see her left eye, then turned her head a slight bit more to look at something she couldn't see. He also noted the silver growing in her bangs, all from a scar under her hairline.

"Hokage-sama..." Urami said from where he stood.

The old man, the Hokage turned to Urami. "Do I look stupid to you?"

Urami realized he was screwed and shook his head. "Hokage-sama, I can explain-" 

"Explain why you kept her locked up down here all this time? We all thought someone killed her parents and kidnapped her during the Kyūbi's attack! Now we know it was just you and that stupid prejudice of yours! If you weren't the Ruuko's _clan head_, I'd have you locked up in jail for-" the old man shouted, only to be interrupted by the loud rumbling of Yue's stomach.

Urami stood silent as the Hokage looked back and forth between the girl behind him and the man in front of him. "You starve her?" the Hokage asked. Urami nodded. "I'll deal with you later. First, tell me her name," the Hokage commanded.

Urami lowered his head in shame. "...Kazeneko Yue."

The Hokage looked at the man in disgust. "You jailed and starved her, in spite of how important the Kazeneko's heir is. If anything happens, it's on your head," the old man warned.

"Hai," Urami muttered, then left the basement before he fell any further in the Hokage's eyes.

The Hokage turned back the caged girl. "Stand back a bit," he warned.

"Nayaa?" Yue meowed, not understanding anything others said to her. It was just noise to her, much like her own mewls were to others.

The Hokage forced a smile, though he was obviously angry. "I'm going to free you now." He used a low level doton to force the door off its hinges. "Come, let's get you some real food," the old man offered as he held his hand out to the girl.

Yue carefully reached out to the man and held his hand as he led her to a world far larger than the one she knew of. The first things she had to get used to was sunlight, that and all the people walking around. There were far more people around than she had ever seen before, and it was all at once too!

The only new thing that stood out the most to her, even more than a world billions of times larger than what she knew of, was the warm feeling of the old man's hand holding her own tiny hand.

_[A few hours later]_

Hiruzen walked into his house with a sigh. The girl next to him looked more like a boy than a girl, but she chose her clothes. She wore a pair of loose khaki pants, a t-shirt and a large hat. Her ears were hidden, but her tail was still visible. Hiruzen made a note to let the girl know that she shouldn't hide her tail or ears, to show that she had pride in what she was. First, he'd have to teach her how to understand him.

"Hokage-sama, who is this?" Akemi, maid to the Hiruzen clan asked when she saw the- "he looks cute."

Hiruzen couldn't help but chuckle at the woman's mistake. "This is Kazeneko Yue, **daughter** of Kazeneko Luna."

Akemi realized who the girl was due to her name. "So she's that child..." she smiled, "come on, let's get you in the bath."

"Bath? Why would you give her a bath?" Hiruzen asked.

Akemi sighed, then started to lecture the man. "She's going to live here, so she needs to get used to this house. Best way to get used to a place is to get naked and relax, why not get clean in the process?"

Hiruzen blushed, remembering something from one of Jiraiya's books. "Did you do that when you first came here? That might explain you being missing for half an hour..."

Akemi stuck her tongue out at her employer with one eye closed. "Perv," she teased, mimicking Hiruzen's daughter, Suzu. Hiruzen would, on many occasions, see this particular expression on Haruno Sakura's face in the future, reminding him of the woman who died giving birth to his grandson.

Akemi took the girl and led her to the bathroom. Hiruzen took off his hat and waited a few minutes. It came just as he decided it wasn't going to happen.

"WHOA! WAIT! STAY!"

Hiruzen smiled as he made his way to the bathroom, figuring the woman had found Yue's tail and ears to be real. Instead of that, he found his maid soaked as she held a naked, struggling and probably dirty hanyō, trying to get her into the water.

"What's the problem here?" Hiruzen asked.

Akemi managed to hook the girl's arms, preventing her escape. "The moment she touched the water, she went insane and I almost lost her," Akemi explained, then reset her grip when Yue managed to unlock her arms.

Hiruzen quirked an eyebrow. "You did notice her ears and tail, right?"

Akemi smiled as she hugged the girl. "They're so cute! And they're real!" she squealed as she forced the girl's face into her chest. Yue stiffened for a moment, then relaxed. Akemi tried to toss the now mellow girl into the water, but this renewed the struggles.

Hiruzen sighed as he watched the two attempt conflicting activities. "Akemi, I find Yue is more like a kitten than a human right now, so pretend you are a mother cat and she's your baby."

Akemi thought for a few moments as she held the girl, then grabbed the buttons on her shirt.

"Whoa! What are you doing!?" Hiruzen shouted in alarm.

Akemi looked at him like he was an idiot. "I'm acting like a mother cat at feeding time. She seems to like my breasts, so I just figured."

Hiruzen forced his heart to slow down. At this rate, he'd die of perversion. "I meant treating her like a naughty kitten, not a hungry one." He completely forgot about Akemi being slightly bird brained at times.

Akemi realized what he meant and let the girl go, then grabbed her by the back of her neck and lifted. Almost instantly, Yue's assumed the 'cat held up by the scruff' position and was completely docile. Akemi carefully put the girl into the water, not getting any resistance this time. When Yue realized that the water wasn't bad, she actually started to play with it.

"She acts like she never had a bath before," Akemi muttered as she grabbed her body wash and sponge, then got to work on the girl. The water started to darken right away.

"She probably hasn't, not for about two years anyway," Hiruzen said as he kept his anger in check. He knew some clans treated people badly, like the Hyūga with the branch house, but this was too much. The girl had no education at all. For all intensive purposes, Yue was feral.

"I'm going to take her shopping later, since dressing like a boy isn't good for any girl," Akemi declared as she finished up with the girl's body and drained the extremely dirty water so she could wash her hair. She had a feeling it would be worse, especially with her ears.

"Naah? Myuu!" Yue whined as the water drained away. She wanted to play with it more.

"She chose those clothes herself," Hiruzen protested.

Akemi turned the shower head on, took it off its holder and turned to the Hokage. "You have to be forceful with kids sometimes."

Hiruzen nodded, accepting her wisdom. It was then that a bit of cat raising knowledge came to mind. "Make sure to keep water out of Yue's cat ears. Don't want to go killing her."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure to keep the water away from her ears," Akemi said as she waved her hand dismissively. She turned the shower head on with a slight smirk. She didn't need to be told this stuff.

Yue took the shower head, finding a new way to play with the water. She turned the water on the two adults, soaking them completely while laughing. While the two mildly glared at the girl as she took pleasure in their discomfort, she turned the shower head on herself, blasting water into her face and hair, ears included.

"NO!" Akemi shouted as she grabbed the shower head and turned it away from the girl, unintentionally spraying Hiruzen in the face again. "Please be alright," the young woman begged as she looked the girl over.

"Myuuuu!" Yue mewled as she tried to grab the shower head again.

The adults sweat dropped. "So she takes after her mother..." Hiruzen muttered, remembering how that particular problem wasn't present in Luna, who loved swimming. In the nude. In rivers. Where certain people could peep on her.

In a far away town, a white haired man suddenly sneezed, which led all the women bathing in the hot springs to find him and have the men in their lives chase him for a while.

Akemi nervously chuckled. "I'll get to work on cleaning her hair. I guess I should wash her tail too, since it is covered in fur."

Hiruzen nodded. "I'll go change, then I'll be in the living room if you need me," he stated as he left his maid to care for the girl. _'Am I really that easy to read?'_ Hiruzen wondered as he made his way to his room, remembering how Akemi figured out his intention of keeping Yue with them.

_[A week later]_

Girl clothes were an utter failure. Yue seemed to hate things that were frilly, a feminine shade and fluttery, even going so far as to shred a dress apart when Akemi tried to put it on her. She stuck to boy's clothing, though she ditched the hat. She was filling out a bit more, due to having three meals a day, three very large meals. They hadn't measured her height yet, but Hiruzen swore on his hat that she had grown a bit taller too.

Now it was bedtime, the roughest time for the girl. No, she didn't go berserk on her bed or struggle with the adults. No, her problem was...

"Time to sleep, Yue-chan," Akemi said as she pulled the covers over the girl's legs.

"Naaaaaaah," Yue yawned, sitting up and struggling to stay awake. She had night terrors sometimes, mainly on brightly lit nights when the window threw its cross shadow on her, reminding her of bars and cages. Hiruzen already decided to have the windows switched out to solid glass panes since Konoha never had any weather bad enough to warrant such reinforced windows. That and it was easier than hearing Yue whine when she woke up from a nightmare.

_'She needs to get used to seeing the moon, since it actually means something to her,'_ Akemi thought, feeling sad. The girl was innocence personified, she didn't need the burden of being part of one of the secrets in the shinobi world. Even though many would claim a curse suited her due to her 'defiled blood,' she didn't deserve this. "I'll leave a light on tonight, the builders will change the windows tomorrow."

Yue looked to the woman, crossed her legs and then put her hands on her ankles, defiantly supporting herself even as she started falling asleep. It was extremely cute as she nodded off a bit, then jerked back awake, only to start to nod off again a moment later. Her resistance didn't last and the girl fell asleep and tilted over. Akemi lay her down properly, covered her up and left the room, leaving the door open just in case.

_[One year later]_

"Can Yue be ninja?" Yue asked. Her speech had improved drastically, though she still mewed when surprised or confused. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than before.

"I don't know, Yue-chan, a ninja is always in danger," Akemi said, worried.

"Yue will be the strongest ninja ever!" the girl boasted.

Akemi ruffled the girl's hair. "Well, you have to pass a test first, and I don't think you're ready yet."

"Yue is ready for anything!" the girl announced.

Hiruzen walked into the room, visiting before he had to return to his dreaded paperwork. "Let's test that then," he said with a grin as he pulled out a small stone with an ornate symbol on it. "Hold this," he said as he held it out to the girl.

One moment, the Hokage's home looked completely normal and picturesque. The next moment, the back porch was torn to ribbons as the air warped, twisting the nearby structure apart with incredible torque.

"Wh-what was that?" Akemi asked, having been picked up and moved by the Hokage.

"That...was Yue," Hiruzen stated. He never knew that reenforcing the seal on her back would cause her chakra to build up in such a dangerous way. He'd need to remove the extra seal he placed, allowing her to access some of her less-than-human power. She'd probably need it anyway if she were to become a ninja. She needed all the power she could have just so she could protect herself. Actually, maybe he could alter it slightly instead. She didn't need all the power she had, just some of it.

Yue was sitting in the middle of a small crater, looking surprised. "Did Yue do that?" she asked as she dropped the now shattered rock.

"No, it was the rock," Hiruzen lied. No use making her fear her own power. "Yue-chan, I'll take you to the academy tomorrow and get you registered for the next set of classes. It won't be easy, but I think you'll do fine."

"Hokage-sama! She hasn't even fully mastered Japanese yet and you want her to learn ninjutsu? She can't go yet!" Akemi protested.

Hiruzen waved a finger before the woman's face. "Being among other children will be the quickest way for her to learn both language and ninjutsu."

Akemi pouted, knowing her employer was right. That didn't mean she had to like it.

_[Two months later, academy]_

"Class, this is Kazeneko Yue. Even if she's younger than you, be kind to her," a chūnin said to the class as he placed a hand on the trembling girl's head.

"Sensei!" a girl near the front called as her hand rose up. She had chestnut brown hair that reached a bit past her jawline and was worn in a way that made most think of a class president in a civilian school. With her light skin and glasses, she also looked a little bookish. She wore a dark red t-shirt with some mesh on the ends of the sleeves and a pair of dark blue shorts that went past her knees. She wore straw sandals, which were considered really old fashioned now.

"What is it, Lina?" the man asked.

"Why is she wearing ornaments? This is a school for those who seriously want to be ninja, not some civilian girl pretending to be a cat," Lina, the girl said.

Yue's nervousness was gone, replaced with anger. "Hey! Yue is a proper han-an-an-a-nyaa," Yue sputtered as the word evaded her. She got frustrated and screamed, loud enough to make everyone wince, "NYAA! Yue's mama was a neko... demon!" She had trouble with that word too.

Lina lightly rubbed her ears, making sure they weren't bleeding. "Let's stop the jokes and take those stupid toys off," the girl said as she got up and walked over to the smaller girl.

Yue caught the taller girl's hands and the two sort of fought, Lina's mild training proving to be futile against Yue's completely untrained, but demonically enhanced sight and speed. Yue's strength was also quite high for her size.

"Enough!" Lina snapped as she quickly performed the only jutsu she knew. **"Bunshin no jutsu!"** she snapped.

Yue flinched back and her hands fumbled, trying to copy what she had seen. She screwed up and the girl caught hold of her ears. "NO!" Yue shouted as electricity crackled over her body, lightly shocking Lina and forcing her to let go.

"Unbelievable..."

"Is that really chakra? Or is it electricity?"

"Is she really a demon's child? That might explain that weird power..."

"Enough class!" the man shouted, "while you may not know it, almost all shinobi are capable of using jutsu that produce elemental effects. It seems that Yue here has a particularly strong ability to use raiton, lightning based ninjutsu."

"Whoa!" a few boys shouted, "can we learn that too?"

The teacher sighed. "No. When you become a chūnin like me, you might be able to learn some, but everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Now, can I begin the class?"

"As soon as those things come off her," Lina grumbled.

"I forgot to mention this, but her ears and tail are real. She's a real hanyō, the child of a human and a demon," the man said, "now take your seats and let's being class."

Yue quickly learned the joys of sleeping in class, seeing as how most of it just flew through her head without any resistance.

_[A few days later]_

Yue sniffled, not liking anyone in the class. Just because she screwed up a lot wasn't her fault. She had finally learned henge yesterday and it didn't work right. Instead of becoming their teacher, she turned into someone else, which turned out to be the only thing she could turn into.

"Hmm? What's this?"

Yue looked up and saw the Hokage looking down at her. "Is something wrong, Yue-chan?"

Sniff. Sniff. "Nothing! Yue can do anything!" the girl said in a brave tone.

"Tell me what's wrong," the Hokage said as he sat down next to her.

"Yue can't use henge right," the girl said, her weak pride falling apart.

"Hoh, let's see what you got so far. Change into me," Hiruzen said.

Yue got up and stood before the man, holding her hands in the ram seal, "Henge!"

A cloud consumed Yue and she was replaced with...a young girl with blonde hair that Hiruzen had never seen before. What the?

The girl changed back. "See! Yue screwed up!"

The Hokage got up and gently rubbed the girl's back, half pretending to sooth the girl. He was also removing the temporary seal he had placed over the permanent one on her back. "It's alright. Calm down and try again. This time turn into...someone from your class." Seems he couldn't seal any of her power away without side effects. He'd have to rely on Minato's seal, hoping it would hold.

Yue sniffed again and quickly scrubbed her tears away. She held her hands in the seal and decided to turn into that idiot Lina. "Henge!" Poof! An almost perfect copy of Lina stood before the man. Her hair was a little too light.

"You still..." Lina started as she came around a corner, then stopped dead when she saw herself and the Hokage. "Wha- huh- when? Hokage-sama?"

The old man chuckled a bit. "Looks like you worked it out, Yue-chan. And I think your friend is here too."

Yue released the henge. "Lina isn't Yue's friend, Lina is a baka."

Lina quickly shot over and covered the girl's mouth. "I'm sorry she wasted your precious time, Hokage-sama. I'll make sure she doesn't do it again. Again, I'm-"

Chomp!

Lina lay on the ground, holding her aching hand as she cried a bit. _'Canines! Her canines!'_ the girl thought as she checked for blood around the bite wounds. Yue had one hell of a bite.

"Lina is a baka," Yue insisted, "she keeps calling Yue a kid."

"Well Yue, you are only six years old while they are all eight, so you are a kid," the Hokage explained.

"WHAT!? She's only six years old!?" Lina shouted.

"Yue is this many years old," the girl said as she held up two fingers on each hand, her ears twitching as well, "this is a six, baka!"

Lina was stunned and a little annoyed. Everyone in class had one year in the academy under their belts and Yue had, by her guess, picked up on most of what they painstakingly learned (ninjutsu wise) in a fraction of the time. It was hard to believe that she had only started a few days ago. The girl was either a genius or she could easily fill her head due to it being almost completely vacant. It was probably the latter.

"Hokage-sama, I want to help Yue learn a few things, things everyone should know," Lina suddenly said. It was true, Yue didn't attend the kunoichi classes, always running off to nap when it was time.

"Yue doesn't need a baka sensei. Yue will just become a baka if Lina teaches her," Yue deadpanned.

"I am not a baka! And stop saying your name when talking about yourself!" Lina shouted.

"But it's cute, just like Yue," the hanyō grumbled.

"Girls like us use 'watashi' when we refer to ourselves!" Lina growled, "from now on, say 'watashi' instead of your name."

"Baka," Yue grunted.

"Hey! Give me the ball back!" a civilian boy cried as he and an older boy walked by.

"Heh. Not happening. It's my ball now," the older boy said as he took off.

"Yue likes that better," the cat girl suddenly said, "...Boku... Yeah! I... I'm Kazeneko Yue! And I will be the most powerful ninja ever!"

Lina paled. Yue was talking like she was a young boy, though it sort of suited her looks a bit. And her claims of becoming the strongest ninja ever... She was insane. Only the Hokage could be called the strongest ninja in Konoha. Did Yue intend to become Hokage? If so, this village's days were numbered. "Come on back to class, baka-neko," Lina said as she grabbed the Yue's arm and started dragging her away. Little did she know, baka-neko would become one of Yue's permanent nicknames.

"Bye Hokage-jiji!" Yue called as she allowed herself to be dragged. If the baka wanted to work harder, let her do it.

Lina cringed, hoping she could get rid of Yue's issues before graduation. The girl couldn't go calling the most important person in the village grandpa when he wasn't her grandfather. Yue was going to be a talented kunoichi, so long as someone made sure she actually used her head. As far as Lina had seen, Yue slept through all the classes they had except for ninjutsu, taijutsu and genjutsu. Sadly, her genjutsu scores were pure zeros.

_[Three months later]_

Over the course of three months, Lina learned a lot of things. One, she had quite a bit of tolerance for annoying people. Two, she learned how relaxing it was to hit annoying people with blunted kunai and shuriken, which doubled as weapons training too. Third, Lina actually had a talent with ninja tools.

Trying to get the girl into the clothes civilian girls wore was impossible, well, almost impossible. Yue had taken to wearing a type of skirt that was worn over her shorts or khakis, but that was as far into the 'girl range' as Yue went. In a few years, if she developed properly, she'd need to invest in more girl's clothes, underwear to be exact. Thankfully, Yue wore the gender proper underwear.

When it came to studies, Yue seemed to only be interested in certain subjects. The girl was a ninjutsu and taijutsu sponge, learning things fast, but not being able to use most of it due to various reasons. For taijutsu, her small body interfered with almost all her combat. In terms of ninjutsu, Yue couldn't use bunshin, having far too much chakra to use it. Lina had performed the stone test on Yue and was shocked when the stone was rendered inert from chakra overload. By Lina's guess, Yue had as much chakra as a highly skilled genin, possibly even a very green chūnin and it was still rising. Her rate of growth was terrifying, having already outstripped everyone in class when it came to ninjutsu and taijutsu. Lina had heard their new teacher, Umino Iruka, talking to another about Yue seeing a skilled ninjutsu user that tutored her.

Of course, the girl had handicaps. She only showed interest in three subjects outside of her preferred classes. Those classes were tactics, stealth and, surprisingly, mechanics. The girl once took Lina's alarm clock apart and put it back together. To stop such events from happening again, Lina got her some books on mechanics and such as well as some stuff to fiddle with. Since those books were bought, Yue only took apart the lock to Lina's apartment (replaced in case Yue made a copy of the key) and a radio receiver. (which Iruka was still using, not knowing it had once been in pieces)

_'How are her marks in the tank? Is it because us ninja put so little stock in most of her strengths?'_ Ninja only used mechanics, to a degree, to set traps.

In spite of her advancement, improvement in speech and reading, as well as her now focused attention, Yue was still...

"Hey baka!" the girl in question shouted.

...As annoying as hell! Which brings us to the last thing Lina learned in these last three months.

"What do you want now?" Lina asked in a strained tone. Sometimes she just wanted to knock Yue out. Such a disrespectful child!

"Get rid of this," Yue said as she pointed to a boy who walked up. He had very pale skin, black hair that was brushed back and pearly white eyes. He wore a simple t-shirt and shorts, looking more civilian than ninja academy student. A seal stood out on his forehead.

Lina nearly screamed at the girl. Behind her was Hyūga Jin, an attractive young boy a few girls had crushes on. It was only due to his looks, since he was only good at taijutsu and his marks were only barely above average.

"Are you Lina-san? It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Hyūga Jin," the boy greeted as he held his hand out.

Lina shook his hand. While she didn't have a crush on him, she still admired his ability to focus on ALL his studies, unlike a certain girl who wouldn't be mentioned. Just for the record, Lina likes people who study.

Yue shivered slightly, sensing that some jerk somewhere in the world was badmouthing her. "Get rid of him! He's been bugging me all day long!"

"B-but," Jin started, looking distressed.

"Um, maybe I could help you out with you problem. Yue's practically useless when it comes to anything social," Lina offered. It was true. Yue only talked to teachers, Lina and the members of the Hiruzen clan. And whoever it was that was helping her with ninjutsu outside of school.

Yue puffed herself up with pride. "But when it comes to being a shinobi, I'm **super** strong while Lina is a baka."

"STOP SAYING THAT WORD!" Lina roared.

Yue pouted a bit, then turned away. "... …. Baka!" And she ran away at full speed to do whatever it was slackers did.

"Sorry about that," Lina apologized, "I have yet to fix that problem."

Jin chuckled a bit. "It's alright."

Lina turned to him completely. "What did you want? And why go to Yue for it?"

Jin looked away. "Um, well... Uh..."

Lina tilted her head slightly. "Come on, what is it?"

Jin looked down now. "I..uh... I want to be...friends with...Yue..." He mumbled something at the end that Lina couldn't catch.

"Huh?" To say that Lina was shocked would be the understatement of the year. Most people avoided Yue, though quite a few people kept trying to gently rub her ears, since Lina admitted that they were very soft and warm when she had done so herself. Other than that, most people backed off when she HISSED at them.

Jin's face was now very red. "I, um... I..." He didn't know how to say what he wanted to say.

"You...LIKE her?" Lina asked.

Jin's face was now red enough to put any other shade of red to shame. "Y-yes," he managed.

Lina was stunned. Yue hadn't even hit puberty yet and had a guy crushing on her. Lina didn't really care about relationships, figuring she'd get around to having one when she was around twenty or so. But this... This was an insult to all females!

"What do you like about her?" Lina asked.

Jin's eyes tilted up, viewing the sky and the barely visible moon his crush was named after. "She's strong. I've never seen her balk when it came to confronting anyone. She speaks her mind and isn't afraid to be ignored due to her actions. I like...how free she is."

"Isn't that all because she's stupid?" Lina bluntly asked.

The two remained completely silent. Lina by her sudden rude comment and Jin by the insult to his first crush. Right then and there, Lina decided that getting Yue involved with Jin, NOT romantically, would probably help her out. She needed to speak to more people.

Now that Lina had a moment to think, without Yue annoying her, she felt a twinge of fear at Yue's rapid and erratic growth. There was something seriously wrong with it, almost like _something_ was forcing her to grow stronger, an external force with its own agenda. Her chakra was also changing, becoming rougher and, oddly enough, darker in color. It was no longer the blue that it used to be, which the Hyūga clan claimed was the normal color, but a dark azure color now.

Maybe she was just thinking too hard on it. Yue was half demon, so maybe all half demons went through crazy growths in strength. Now that she thought of it, were there any other half demon ninja in the world?

_[Genin team assignments, five years later]_

Yue was happy because she was finally a genin. She had struggled long and hard to try and master the bunshin no jutsu, but it was impossible for her. In the end, she used the kage bunshin no jutsu as well as a high powered katon to show she was ready for the field. Of course, she'd never use Gōkakyū again, since her ninjutsu tutors (both died during a mission) told her to use it sparingly due to the Uchiha clan. Well, that didn't matter anymore since the Uchiha had been almost completely wiped out. All that was left was the Uchiha who slaughtered the clan and a moody brat with more arrogance than anything.

Speaking of brats, Yue fondly remembered that idiotic Hyūga who showed up once, some kid named Neji. Kid mouthed off, calling her inferior to the Hyūga in every way possible. She literally and figuratively kicked his ass. Kid was good, but her enhanced hearing gave her advance warning to everything and running a thin screen of lightning over her skin guarded her from what little he could do. She got bored of him and embarrassed the hell out of him by grabbing his face and reducing him to a snotty kid pinwheeling his arms like an idiot. She would have done more, but just let him go and walked away as he swore fate would catch up to her and he'd put her in place. Yue ignored him since she felt little to no threat from him.

Jin, who had finally been put into the same class as Yue and Lina, was overjoyed. He was now on speaking terms with Yue, he was 'Hyūga' rather than 'thing,' and there was a good chance they might be on the same team since their skills complimented each other.

Lina was happy because she hoped to Kami that she'd finally be able to get rid of Yue. The girl wasn't half as annoying as before, but she still called Lina a baka all the time. Did Yue really hate Lina that much? The word didn't carry any malice or hatred, but... Lina just didn't know how to describe the way Yue said it.

Iruka had started out as an extremely enthusiastic teacher, but it seemed that he lacked the ability to fully control his classes. Yue had mentioned that scaring the students might be a good idea, from personal experience, which led to him inventing the 'Oni Atama no jutsu,' a specialized henge that affected the head and the volume of the user's voice.

"**SIT DOWN!"** the henged Iruka shouted, making the class obey. Honestly, most people blamed Yue and a younger prankster in the school for Iruka's sighs and somewhat short temper when it came to pranks and truancy.

"I didn't think I'd have to keep using it on you guys," the man sighed as he pulled out a scroll. This class only had twelve graduates this time around meaning four teams. Yue eagerly listened for her name, or the name of someone she knew. Maybe her and Lina would be on the same team. Yue would never openly admit it, but she considered Lina her first friend.

"Team 2: Hyuga Jin..." Iruka started. Yue had completely ignored the first team.

_'Oh, him...'_ Yue thought, feeling annoyed. He had basically forced himself into the picture when it was her and Lina, making things awkward. He always stared at her when he thought she wasn't looking. Kami, it was like he went home everyday and forgot that she wasn't completely human.

"Lina..." Iruka continued.

Lina perked up a bit, not minding the team arrangement so far. Jin was a hard worker and did his best when it came to any team assignment he was put to. All in all, he'd make a solid ninja and a great ally.

Iruka finally finished, though he hadn't paused for dramatic effect or anything. "And Kazeneko Yue. Next-"

"WHAT!?" Lina and Yue suddenly shouted.

"Why is our team so messed up?" Lina asked.

Iruka sighed, knowing this would happen. "Lina, you're a thinker and a bit of a strategist. Jin is roughly average in abilities, a touch better than most at taijutsu. With her high strength, her katon and raiton, Yue is a battering ram."

_'So... she's stupid and has a lot of power,'_ a couple people thought.

Yue's left cat ear twitched in annoyance, even as both cat ears tilted back in anger. Surprisingly, she didn't explode, or cause an explosion, and just sat in her seat, glaring down at the desk. Of course, most people decided to leave the 'battering ram' alone in case she decided to lay a siege on them.

Iruka finished up the team selections and told them that their sensei would arrive in the afternoon to pick them up, so they should be back a bit after 1 PM.

Yue never left the room.

_[1:05 PM]_

Without warning, a window shattered as a large, tan colored ball flew through it. Kunai flew out, parts of the tan colored cloth attached to it. The fresh genin watched as it staked itself onto the ceiling and floor, becoming a banner.

Anko Mitarashi!

Dango lover!

Tool expert!

Team 2's jonin sensei!

A woman in a daring outfit with dango in one hand, the other flung out to the side, stood before it. "As the banner says, I'm Anko Mitarashi and I'm here for my brats!" she shouted.

Everyone pointed to the members of Team 2, who were now missing.

Anko smirked and tossed three kunai in a lazy high arc, seemingly at random. Two gasps and a loud thump were heard as Lina and Jin shot up from behind some desks, a shallow cut on their cheeks.

Anko's eyes widened in shock. Could she have accidentally hit the third brat with her kunai? She took two quick steps, only to feel cold metal graze her cheek. "Huh?" she gasped as she touched her face, seeing a slight bit of blood on her fingers.

Yue picked herself off the ground, resting her head on the back of the chair she was behind. "Like it?" the cat girl asked with a smirk.

Anko was shaking slightly, not with rage but excitement. "I like you, kitty cat. Maybe the other two will be good too, just as soon as I can sample their blood. Come here, let me have a lick, and I still need to taste you too, koneko-chan."

All genin present shivered as Team 2 reluctantly followed the woman, after she forcibly licked up some of the blood from Lina and Jin's wounds, proclaiming them to be tasty.

_[Behind the academy]_

"Well, you know about me, so how about you guys say something about yourselves," Anko said, then pointed at Jin with her dango skewer.

"Huh? Me? Uh, I'm Hyūga Jin. I like..." he glanced at Yue for a moment, "uh, taijutsu! I hate seals and fūinjutsu. Um, that's all?"

"That was kind of lame, but whatever. Next, the plain looking one," Anko said as she pointed to Lina.

Lina fought the urge to shout at the woman. "I'm Lina, my parents were killed while trying to move to Konoha, so my last name is lost to me. I like trying my best at everything, hoping to become a decent shinobi. I also like using ninja tools more than anything else, but I still use all my other abilities. I hate people who don't give their all and prefer to focus on very few things." That last bit was a jab at Yue.

Anko felt the edge of anger in her. This girl didn't know it, but Anko had originally focused on only one subject rather than trying to balance herself out. "Next, fuzzy ear-chan."

Yue's fuzzy ears twitched in annoyance, then she shot onto her feet. "I'm Kazeneko Yue, hanyō and soon to be the strongest ANBU ever. I like learning ninjutsu and practicing taijutsu. I think genjutsu is for weaklings and cowards. I love meat and I don't really like oranges because the juice hurts my nose. My special skill is the awesomeness of me learning nature transformation before I graduated!" Yue boasted in a loud voice.

Lina sneezed, silently deciding she had an allergy to bullshit. Jin honestly believed she could do it, since he liked her so much. As for Anko...

"Hahahahahaha!" the woman laughed. She got up and, quick as a snake, flicked the tip of her kunai across Yue's cheek, then licked at the wound before it healed. "I like all three of you. Now for business," with that, Anko tossed three scrolls to the young genin-to-be, "your maps are all incomplete, but will make a whole map when brought together. In order to reach the real genin test, you need a complete map. By the way, I'll only accept one complete map. Go home, rest and plan as to how you will pass the test tomorrow." And she shunshined away.

"Complete map..." Yue said in an even voice as she eyed the other two genin. She could beat both of them and take their maps easily. But the test... how could she prepare for something she didn't even know about? Well, she could bring _those_ with her to give her and edge. Hehe, edge. That was funny. Yue got up and started to search for a temporary den. Hiruzen's son had been wary of her lately, making the whole house tense. As soon as she had enough ryo saved up, she'd find an apartment of her own. Living underground wasn't too bad, it was just a lot of work keeping the den from collapsing.

Lina decided that she would hide herself and copy what the other two maps had on them. Her combat skills were decent, but paled next to Yue's. Jin was good, but even he was careful when Lina had a tool in hand.

Jin was torn. He was friends with both of them and liked Yue a lot. Could he really fight them and complete his map? If it came to fighting, he could do well, though he could do even better if he could use the Byakugan...

_[Next day]_

All three genin of Team 2 arrived at the edge of the forest, the same place they got the maps yesterday. Yue now had a pair of swords with her, though they were there for the mysterious test that Anko had mentioned. Jin wore the standard shinobi wear of a gray shit and pants, though he now had his hands bandaged up in case he did have to fight. Lina had gone and bought two Fūma Shuriken, since she could use them at a distance, close range or even use them as shields.

"Ready for battle, I see..." Lina said as she eyed the two other genin.

"Just a precaution!" Jin nervously yelped.

Yue smirked. "Against you two, I'd be ready for battle in the nude."

Anko, who was nearby, wondering if Yue would look good in an outfit that matched her own. Yue definitely had a similar mindset to Anko, so maybe matching outfits? Maybe Lina too. _'No! Bad Anko, bad! Keep yourself in check. At least until they are old enough. If Yue is anything like her mother...'_ Blood dripped for Anko's nose as she remembered that naughty cat lady.

Jin's nose bled at the thought of his crush in the nude. Even if she had an immature body, he still found her attractive. He figured that she was one of those girls who suddenly grew mature at a random point during puberty, so Yue would probably become quite beautiful in the future. No matter what, he'd always think she was beautiful.

Lina, somehow, wasn't surprised that Yue would be comfortable with no clothes on.

Now that all the genin were gathered, a pressure filled the area as each wondered how to get the other two maps. Well, Yue was wondering who to knock out first.

"Hmm? What's Anko-sensei doing here?" Yue shouted as she pointed towards where Anko was hiding, making the woman flinch slightly.

What happened next was not the greatest moment in shinobi history.

Lina and Jin both looked, then took a cheap shot from Yue in the form of a shadow clone tackle to knock them down and frantically trying to get their maps. Jin and Lina managed to hit the clones, making them vanish.

"Tch. Gotta do this the hard way, eh?" Yue growled as she assumed a fighting stance.

"I'm going to bite your tail!" Lina roared as she got up and balled her fists.

Jin was silent still, hoping he could get the maps without hurting anyone too badly.

A brawl erupted between the three, though it quickly devolved into little more than slapping, name calling, clothes and hair being yanked on as bitter curses were spat. Jin quickly found himself tossed out of the cat fight due to him having a Y chromosome.

As Jin sat there, Lina managed to dislodge Yue's map while the hanyo took a swipe at her, missing her skin but clipping the strings that held the scroll on Lina's weapon pouch. Completely heedless of their original objectives, the girls continued with their fight as the scrolls rolled in Jin's direction.

Jin realized he had all three maps and opened his. His map had no beginning or end point, in fact, it seemed like it was only part of a map. He opened the others and found that, together, they actually formed a proper map. That was odd since he figured all three maps just had parts of the trail on a full map, not three maps showing the whole trail when combined.

"Wait, only a full map..." Jin muttered as the gears started to click together. That was it! "Yue! Lina! Stop!" he shouted.

POW! POW!

The two girls had just punched each other, Lina's fist landing on Yue's head between her cat ears, giving her a splitting headache, Yue's fist impacted Lina's midsection, hitting the girl's bladder. Yue fell to the ground, holding her head while Lina fought the urge to wet herself, running into the bushes instead.

_[Four minutes later]_

"I think I found a way for all of us to pass," Jin said.

The girls were sitting in seiza, something neither was good with. Yue's tail was all jagged like lightning, twitching every time she shifted her weight. Lina was pale and sweating, something she did when she went through drawn out pain.

Jin laid out all the maps. "At first, I thought I could just copy the routes off your maps, but I was wrong," Jin said as he unfurled the scrolls. "See, all our maps are just part of one."

Yue picked up her map, seeing that it ended somewhere she didn't know about. "So what?"

Lina looked at her scroll, seeing that it was the start of the trail, which started at... "Sweet Sweet Dango stand?"

"That place is actually quite good~" Yue purred.

Jin smiled nervously. "See, our maps are a complete map if brought together. Anko-sensei said she would only accept one complete map, but she didn't say it was only from one person."

Yue's ears flattened in thought, then her tail curved to sort of form a question mark. "Really?"

Lina slapped the back of Yue's head, starting up an aftershock of the headache from before. "Sorry, but you were begging for a tsukkomi, boke."

"You'd know all about being dumb, baka!" Yue shot back.

"HMPH!" both hummed as they turned away from each other.

Jin let a very nervous smile cross his face. Looks like he'd have to be a bridge for a while.

Anko smiled, expecting the three to be interesting at the very least. She then burst into a cloud of expended chakra.

_[Fifteen minutes later, training ground 14]_

Anko was sitting on a high rock, eating some dango while watching her students come closer. She had gotten the memories of her shadow clone, so she knew that all three would arrive. She honestly expected the Hyūga kid to show up alone or something, since all Hyūga were skilled at taijutsu and had the byakugan.

Anko had never bothered to recon the three, preferring to see them in action and adapt to them rather than knowing everything about them from the start. In her eyes, it was more effective to see them in the field and learn of their personalities through actually getting to know them rather than checking everything about them and trying to learn of their faults and strengths by going through their homes when they weren't around. To do that, it was no better than going shopping for a tool. These three kids would look to her for advice and knowledge even when they had surpassed her, since she had experiences they might not ever have.

"_Everything you need to know about a person can easily be seen with a glance. Strengths, weaknesses, and even their limits. When your eye wants to wander away, ignore what you were looking at because it isn't worth your time,"_ a memory of Orochimaru said in her head. He was a man who only saw ability, which was only a small part of what made someone so strong. He often saw her rejection of the curse seal as a sign of weakness, but she saw it as strength, a sign that the curse seal he branded her with was beneath her. In other words, most jōnin sensei's methods, which were similar to Orochimaru's own, were hopelessly flawed and wrong. You couldn't figure out your student by studying them, you became their friend and mentor, then you could lead them properly and help them become great ninja.

"Teams are trust," Anko said when her team stood before her.

"What was that?" Jin asked.

Anko smiled. "That is the first thing I'm teaching you three. Teams are built on trust. Without trust, you're just three brats."

"So first we do the test!" Yue shouted as she gripped the hilts of her swords. Her ninjutsu trainers had also taught her some kenjutsu, so she wanted to try it out.

"Oh, that. You guys passed that already," Anko said.

The three genin all blinked in confusion.

"That map was the test," Anko then went on to explain that the idea was for all three to realize that she only set a limit on how many maps she would take, not how many people could hand it in. In other words, Jin had been right.

"Now, take these," Anko said as she handed the three pieces of paper.

"What are these? Bookmarks?" Yue asked. What else could the be? They didn't look like maps or food coupons...

"These pieces of paper will let me know what your elemental affinities are. I already got a grasp of your tool and taijutsu capabilities from earlier, so now I need to know your ninjutsu capabilities," Anko said.

"Oh, and what are our capabilities?" Lina asked.

Anko smirked. "Lina, you're skilled with tools and you are okay with taijutsu. Yue is skilled with taijutsu and weapons. Jin is okay with taijutsu, I don't really know how he is with weapons, but we'll get to that a little later. I'm not really into genjutsu, so I'll go over that if it ever comes up."

"Like I said yesterday, genjutsu is a useless type of ninjutsu used by weaklings and cowards," Yue cut in.

Lina smirked. "More like you can't use it to save your life..."

Anko nodded. "To each their own. Anyway, put some chakra into those papers and I can tell you what elements you'll be most skilled with."

The three obeyed and Jin's was the first to react. His tag split in two down the center. "Huh? What's that mean?" he asked.

"Wind," Anko stated, "good thing Asuma owes me a favor. I'll see if he can teach you a few basic fūton after you become a chūnin."

Lina got hers to work a few seconds later, her tag became soaked and sagged in her hands. "Hmm, water affinity. Do you know anyone who has a few suiton I can learn?" the girl asked.

Anko's eye brow twitched a little. She didn't really like those know-it-all types too much. They reminded her of Orochimaru. "I know somebody, but he's a tough case. I'll see what I can do."

Yue kept trying hard, but the chakra wouldn't flow properly. After a few minutes, she growled and _forced_ it into the tag.

The tag crinkled almost instantly and the end practically exploded.

"Whoa!" Anko cried as she dodged a flying ember, "looks like some serious lightning and fire affinity. I can teach you a katon or tw..." She stopped when the tag started to shimmer slightly. Without warning, the tag vanished as tiny sparks of light rose from where it had been a moment before. _'Th-that... What __the hell just happened?!'_ Anko thought in shock. She'd never heard of such a reaction before. "Listen! I have to go see the Hokage about something! You three meet back here in two hours!" the woman vanished.

With her gone, Jin invited his two teammates to some lunch. They agreed and the genin left to go eat.

Hiruzen listened to everything Anko said. "Don't take this the wrong way, but are you drunk?" he asked. He had to make sure. If Yue did possess that power, then she was far more valuable to outside powers than he thought.

"I'm sober! Even if I had been drunk, the sight of that tag being dragged into nothingness would have made me sober in a second!" Anko shouted.

Hiruzen sighed. "Keep this a secret," he ordered. When Anko nodded, he went on. "Yue's last name was Ruuko, but it was changed to hide her from her heritage. She is Ruuko Nozomu's daughter, meaning she has the same Kekkei Tōta as him. That also means she possesses one of the rarest release types: the Onmyōton."

"Ruuko..." Anko said in mild wonder. The clan had fallen apart over the years, mostly due to oppression from the 'pure' Uchiha and Hyūga clans, but the old stories told of Ruuko members being unmatched weapon masters. The clan had been demon exterminators before joining the other great clans for Konoha's creation. Ninjutsu seemed to suit them just as well as the sword, so it was a fairly easy transition. She had met Nozomu once or twice and he struck her as being very much like his friend, Namikaze Minato. He accepted people based on their actions, not family or who their sensei was. Some shinobi spread rumors that Nozomu had turned down the role of Hokage so Minato could be the Yondaime, but that was false. Minato had wanted Nozomu to be one of his bodyguards, but the Ruuko clan head and his wife were expecting their child...who just happened to be on Anko's team now.

"You must keep this secret from Yue. She holds a deep resentment for how she was treated by the clan, so telling her might do more harm then good," Hiruzen advised, "also, I want to see if I can get Urami to cough up the scrolls detailing her Kekkei Tōta so she can learn to control it."

"That's about as likely to happen as Guy wearing something that isn't almost form fitting and green," Anko deadpanned. Clans and their bullshit.

Hiruzen sighed, knowing she was right. "Either way, don't say anything to her. We'll pass it off as us finding out her mother had the power if we get the scrolls. Also take her to your place. She's been living on the streets or something lately and I don't want her to get kidnapped or killed."

"Hai," Anko said, bowed, went over to a window and jumped out. Thankfully, this one was open already.

It was time and Anko appeared in front of them. "You three are now my brats," Anko smirked at the thought, "you three are going to be beautiful little killers."

Lina's eye brow twitched slightly. "That's disturbing Sensei," the girl then got a satisfied little smile, "if we're going to be beautiful killers, what about Yue? Is she the 'little' part?"

Anko scowled. "I won't have any of that in my squad. Since I'm going to be training you three to be assassins, or at least able to take an opponent down with ease, you have to at least be civil with each other." Her expression darkened slightly. "When you're targeting someone, it is fitting to have good teammates who won't decide to leave a few enemies behind to kill you. Remember that." She then got to work with them, trying to improve their teamwork before anything else.

After the team training, she grabbed the little kitten who tried to run off. "Not happening. You're my responsibility now, so I'm not letting you live wherever it is you live." Anko smirked. "You are living with me, Koneko-chan."

Yue swallowed hard. Things might get a bit dangerous now with this insane window-cidal maniac.

_[Anko's house, Half an hour later]_

Yue was quite surprised. "Where's all the targets with dango skewers in them?"

Anko laughed. "That's a new one. Normally, everyone asks where the bondage equipment is," she managed. _'Just don't find that hidden panel on the floor near my bed. That's where I keep the handcuffs.'_

"Bondage?" Yue asked.

"Nothing you need to know about. Yet," Anko dismissed as she waved a hand, "I got a spare room with a futon, so you can sleep there until I get it properly furnished." She started to lead the way. "As you can see, it has a closet for clothes or those swords on your back, whichever works. Speaking of those swords, they look kind of...crappy. No offense."

Yue growled with a bit of a cute pout, "I bought them for practically nothing, so they aren't all that good."

Anko thought for a few moments, then figured she knew someone could help. "I know this weapon maker, we're sort of drinking buddies He might be able to fix those blades up."

Yue thought for a few moments. Damaged swords weren't good to use since they could easily snap, so maybe she should go see this guy. Maybe with Anko around, she wouldn't be forced out of the store. Yue always needed someone of authority around or else she was treated like a plague, having various insults spat at her while being blamed for every little wrong thing that had happened in Konoha since her birth. Yue nodded with a fake smile, "sure!"

"Alright. First, we get something to eat. We'll go hit the public baths after and then hit the sack. After our mission and team training tomorrow, I'll take you to meet the guy."

"Alright," Yue said, then held up something she found, "what are these?"

Anko sweat dropped. Yue had found her handcuffs. "Um... training equipment?" Anko tried.

"What kind of training?" Yue asked, starting to get a little excited. If Anko was being vague, that meant that it wasn't normal training. Yue's unusual training had led to her graduating when she shouldn't have been able to, so this training might get her a lot stronger if she did it! Her excitement got to her tail, making it swish back and forth like the girl was hunting a small, defenseless animal.

"Escape training!" Anko declared, deciding it wasn't a hundred percent from the truth.

"Can you teach us?" Yue asked as she held up the cuffs like Kami had given them to her.

"Well I don't have enough..." Anko muttered.

"Yeah you do!" Yue shouted as she pulled out two more pairs of handcuffs, one shiny black and the other pick with fuzz. The black ones had been hidden on the bottom of Anko's underwear drawer while the fuzzy ones had been missing for a while, so how the hell did the cat find them so quickly?

"Maybe later, I need to replace this pair," Anko said as she quickly swiped the fuzzy pink ones. Anybody who saw her cuffing any kid with these ones would have her arrested in no time.

**A/N~**

First of all, sorry for the long wait. I'm weak to heat, get sick often during summer and it is usually quite bad. I recently suffered from near total loss of voice and most hearing in one ear. Also got to the point where every cough felt like it would blow up the underside of my brain. Anyways, the other thing that slows me down is my being a trigger writer, which means I can take inspiration from various sources and I often get inspired to write in the same way. Quite simply, an influx of new music and such has had me altering later events quite heavily. Add into it deciding to add the login button to a previously blocked script on the site made things a little difficult. Yes, I use Aurora and not IE (who still uses that heavily outdated piece of crap now?) or Chrome. (Because it is based off IE, which is useless for anything other than getting a newer, better browser)

Next chapter will contain a quick preview of Team Kakashi running into the 10th member of Akatsuki. Well, actually it is the first of two, since the one you will soon read about gets replaced later on with a...freak of sorts, but a strong freak. Let's just say Deidara and Tobi are normal compared to this guy. In fact, Guy would say the replacement is too youthful.

Since I heard fics won't be deleted, this one will contain all my originally planned content. Some of it isn't for the faint of heart.

As for the Omake, I already know Sakura's parents have been revealed, but I think the ones I made for her are funnier.

**Character Intros-**

Lina: The first thing to know about her is that, like Tenten, Lina possesses no last name. Her parents were moving to Konoha when their caravan was attacked, resulting in the death of her parents. Konoha shinobi saved her from death, but her past and family is lost to her. She became a shinobi so that she could help someone avoid her type of life.

Strict, uptight and a firm believer in the rules all describe Lina to a T. She is a weapons specialist with decent genjutsu ability. She is a somewhat unwilling friend to Yue, but she does view the girl as her best friend. The friendship between Lina and Jin pretty much ends at being teammates.

Hyuga Jin: An unusual member of the Hyūga clan's branch family. He cannot activate his Byakugan for unknown reasons, but has actually memorized the standard locations of a human beings' tenketsu. Even with that knowledge, his ability to fight is barely above average and his ninjutsu and genjutsu are completely average. In fact, everything about Jin is average.

Has a habit of chuckling when he is nervous or doesn't understand what is going on. He has a crush on his teammate Kazeneko Yue, but he is steadily falling in love with her due to her free spirit.

Kazeneko Yue: More cheerful, more excitable, more annoying and a hell of a lot louder. In basic: Naruto with female parts, better training and no fuzzball inside. The main difference is the voice I attached to the younger Yue. Her voice is much higher pitched at this point, and has no growl to it, when compared to her older self. Yue also has no scar on her neck, so that might be a hint as to later.

Younger Yue is a bit of a terror to Konoha. While it was never covered, in this chapter, Yue constantly tears through the streets, crashing into stuff and destroying small stands. Do remember that kittens may be natural born ninja, especially black kittens like Yue, but they are still quite clumsy.

**Omake~**

**Doting fathers!**

An almost seven foot tall, extremely imposing man who looked to be made of solid muscle stood outside the academy. He wore a tattered samurai robe over his plain black hakama and wooden geta on his feet. Even without his sword, he still gave off the aura of a man wielding the deadliest of blades. His face looked to be chiseled from the hardest of stone, set in a slight frown with his eyebrows angled in slight anger, a single scar on the right cheek and azure eyes that were as cold as ice. All of this incredibly powerful, frightening man was topped off with long, extremely pale pink hair, bordering on white, worn down with no bindings.

"Papa!" a cute girl with pink hair called as she ran up to the man and latched her tiny arms around his left leg.

The man placed a hand on the girl's head and gently pat her. "Sakura-chan..." his gruff voice ground as softly as he could.

"Papa listen to this! I got perfect on my test!" Sakura cheered as she held up the test paper.

The man continued patting her head. "That's very good, Sakura-chan. Le-"

"I wonder if Sasuke-kun noticed," Sakura said.

Everyone, except Sakura, felt the pressure double. The man's face didn't change, but one could tell that he wanted to meet Sasuke, and the meeting would end with the boy needing serious therapy.

"Sakura-chan..." he started.

"Hmm? What is it, Papa?" Sakura innocently asked.

The man lowered himself to his knee before his daughter, still dwarfing her. "You can't get married until you are at least sixteen years old and a chūnin," the man said. _'And not to an Uchiha,'_ he mentally added, his scar twitching a bit in memory of his 'duel' against Fugaku.

"Papa! You're embarrassing me!" Sakura wailed.

The man stood back up and held his hand out for the small girl to take, which she did. Had Sasuke met this man rather than Sakura's mother, he never would have changed his opinion of pink since this man was still known as 'The Bloody Blossom' in bingo books, a former A-rank threat. After meeting the woman who would be his wife, he reformed himself, served time and then moved to Konoha to be with her. Even now, shinobi tread lightly around him.

Yamanaka Inoichi watched the whole thing and sighed. _'Some fathers are too overprotective.'_

"Daddy! Do you think Sasuke-kun would like it if I grew my hair long?" Ino asked.

Once again, the tension in the air shot up as Inoichi decided that he might need to have a talk with Sasuke, one that would leave the boy in need of therapy. "Hime, you can't get married until you are sixteen years old and a chūnin," he said, mentally adding, _'and not to that Uchiha!'_

Ino sighed. "Alright daddy." She took the hand he offered and they left.

**Term Index-**

Discharge: Sometimes, inexperienced shinobi with an affinity to raiton temporarily release electricity, though it is normally very weak, barely being static. In the case of triple lightning affinities, the electricity could be strong enough to act like a strong stunning raiton.

Stone Test: The person taking the test holds a small stone, which drags out chakra if the person can use it to a sufficient degree. This causes the stone to glow with light. On extremely rare occasions, the stones have produced nature transformation effects as a result of too much chakra being pulled into them, which is why it is preferred that children are trained to be shinobi, since the chance of this happening is almost non-existent with a child. A massive build up of chakra can cause the same reaction, but such a thing happening should be impossible.

**Jutsu Index-**

**Oni Atama no jutsu** [Ogre head technique]: An extremely simple henge that doesn't even have a rank placed on it due to having practically no chakra drain as well as possessing very little skill requirement. Invented by Iruka to control his students. The only reason it hasn't been copied yet is due to the voice enhancement, which nobody has been able to replicate completely.

**Responses-**

**Sky Zephyrus:** You! Stop reading my mind! Yes, Sakura will get that idiot for running away without a word! I can't believe you took that out of my head! Too bad you didn't get the rest. Let's just say that Sakura gets a bit...territorial.

**SuperNeos2:** Told ya her grace period was over, but is she really dead? We left off with Assuke running at her and lightning hit the clearing, right? Also, that chūnin woman didn't see any actual kill, so she's a worthless witness. You'll have to wait til next chapter to learn of the conclusion of that fight.

**Pie:** For Sakura, Naruto would break the laws of reality, but bringing Sasuke back to her is far easier. Remember that he still wants to bring Sasuke back in spite of him trying to kill so many important people already, himself and Sakura included.

**Thedarkpokemaster:** If you mean random chūnin woman I created as a partial witness to the fight, she's an extra you would be better off forgetting since I'm going to leave her down there for a while. (she will appear in the sequel, when I get around to writing it) If you mean Lina, you now know. As to Yue's fate, next chapter tells all!

Or does it?

**AizheNi:** First off, I wonder if I should be happy or disturbed that my OC's supposed death is being compared to the main villain of Part I... Who is widely regarded as being extremely gay as well as a pedophile. I'll go with disturbed...

And which death are we talking about? Was it when Sasuke cut him up and ate his pedo-snake bits, or was it when Itachi sealed him into his Susanoo's sword? If that's the case, he might not be completely dead. A single white snake was seen fleeing the battle between Sasuke/Orochimaru and Itachi. Hebi-teme was shown reviving himself from a single snake before. Just to let you know, Orochimaru will be killed off completely in this fic, but not by Itachi. Let's just say it will be painful how he goes.

Yue was weakened, as you saw. She had to absorb chakra from Kabuto and dissolve some of her hair to make up enough chakra for her stage 2 (spiral) rasengan to work, not knowing the curse seal would allow her to use one in exchange for ending the transformation. As to her fate, next chapter will reveal the true end of that fight.

**DarkLordK:** Reading your review made me realize that the fight, which still isn't over yet, was good. Actually, Yue started off with many of Konata's traits, such as her eye shape, cat-like mouth and hair style. I chopped her hair short, completely altered her face to be more serious. I still left Yue as a tiny little kiddie girl in spite of being the oldest amongst the rookies (even if she isn't one) of Konoha. I figured it was time for Konoha to have a lot of power in a tiny package. That and I wanted to make a ridiculously powerful character who looked ridiculous. A loli-nin (who isn't a loli) with lots of power was cool, but making her a cat girl was even better!

**9-tailed reaper:** Sorry it took so long, I got very sick and summer is coming, so I'm going to slow down a bit due to the heat.

**Rocketshipping Fan:** I know, that was a trick roundhouse kick chapter. I planned this from the very beginning, all to inflate Sasuke's ego, setting him up for a painful dose of reality later on!

**Super Saiyin Haruno Sakura:** I'm going to make her a little stronger, a little better at taijutsu and I'm also going to alter her appearance slightly. Biggest change of all, well, I sort of introduced her father in this chapter's omake, so you can guess what it is. BTW, he'll fully appear later on.

Oh, and I knew the last chapter would get some people, but finding people crying was more shocking than people telling me they thought Yue was a canon character, or at least felt like one.

**NaruSaku fan 100:** I would say calm down and take the time to use punctuation, but this story might get removed from the site later. Let's all hope that doesn't happen.

**SoraxRiku13:** First I heard this fic can be read off an iPod touch. Glad you like it and I hope what happens later will keep you coming. And yes, later chapter will answer your questions. Let me give you a hint: the answer is confusing until it is explained in full. Even then, it won't make total sense until later on.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Revolving Lantern arc – Darkness of the soul

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Almost all of the arc is mine.**

Yue, now almost fourteen years old and as tall as she would be for the next two years, yawned as loudly as she could, intentionally annoying all her fellow off-duty jōnin. "This station sucks," Yue stated.

That was a point all the jōnin, new and seasoned, could agree on. While the jōnin standby station was nice looking and comfortable, whoever made the coffee needed lessons since it was unfit for consumption by anything alive. It once led to a jōnin needing emergency medical treatment, for food poisoning no less, after a single sip. What really bothered the fresh batch of jōnin was actually being there.

"Too slow," Yue muttered. She figured being a jōnin, correction, a tokubetsu jōnin would be more exciting than this. She figured she be hunting dangerous missing-nin or participating in a high profile mission. But noooo, jōnin didn't have the ability to walk into the mission office and ask for a mission, no, they had to wait in the village or lounge about in this office for someone to pick them for a mission. "Lina and Jin keep going on missions. Damn my rank," Yue grumbled, not liking her inactivity. She didn't go through two chūnin exams and a jōnin exam just to sit around all day long! She wanted action, fights and to burn something with her jutsu! That might make her feel a little cooler, not that the heat in her body had anything to do with the air temperature. It was her going through heat, her second time, but it seemed it manifested as a sharp increase to her aggressiveness rather than... getting overly cuddly with people.

Things she could do to pass the time? Well, there was Might Guy and a taijutsu lesson. Wait, he was going to have competitions with his 'hip and cool rival for life' he always rambled about, so that wouldn't happen. Bother Hyou for a new weapon? Nah, she decided to leave him alone for a little while after he finished making her new kunai design a reality, twenty copies to be exact. Maybe see if Anko was busy? Training Ground 44 was a nice place to kill time every once in a while, when you had Anko in tow.

Her mind wandered to the academy, wondering if things had changed a lot since she was last there. "I got nothing better to do," Yue said as she got up, stretching to alleviate the imaginary dust and rust in her joints. "Time to go to school," Yue said with a grin, then wondered if she went insane with boredom and heat. Nobody, who wasn't getting paid for it, looked forward to going to school. Then again, many who were paid to go to school didn't look forward to it either.

"Hey Kazeneko, where are you going?" a female jōnin called after the neko hanyō.

"For a walk to the academy. Maybe I can actually teach the kids something about real shinobi life while I'm there. We all know those lessons don't prepare them for much more than using jutsu," Yue explained.

The woman thought about it. "You know, if you're so bored all the time, why not sign up to become a sensei? You always were decent at teaching things, especially ninjutsu, so why not do it for profit?"

Yue shook her head. "Being a teacher sounds even more boring then sitting in this room all day long. Going back to school permanently is almost as smart as a missing-nin breaking into a high security prison and locking the doors behind them."

"Not that, a jōnin sensei. You know, like how Mitarashi trained you. A genin team's instructor," the woman said.

Yue thought about it as she left the building. Genin always got missions and they normally stayed with their sensei for a while after they became chūnin. That meant Yue could go on missions all the time. Well, she wasn't that selfish, but who knows what kind of adventures and missions she could experience while being a sensei for a couple brats.

...They would probably be taller than her in no time, if they weren't already.

Anyway, becoming a teacher for some genin would also lessen the danger Konoha could face in the future, something the girl wished for in spite of how she was treated by everyone. Just because they treated her like unwanted trash didn't mean she should turn her back on them. If she did that, she'd be no better than the people around her. Nah, it seemed more poetic to train up some amazing ninja and have the villagers feel odd about their 'demon' raising some great ninja who ensured their peace.

_[Konoha Shinobi Academy]_

"Hasn't changed at all," Yue said to herself with a slight smile. Her slightly long hair blew in the wind, not bothering her too much. Still, she'd need to cut it sooner or later. She pulled her hood up and hid her tail, not wanting to scare any kids because she was 'Konoha's demon.'

Just as she figured she'd have to go looking for a student or something to ask some questions, a blond boy ran towards her.

"NA-RU-TO!" boomed from the school.

"Onee-san! Let's go!" the boy, obviously Naruto shouted as he grabbed Yue's hand and dragged her away.

"Whoa! Wait, what's going on?" Yue asked as she staggered after the boy.

"My prank went VERY right. I need to hide for a while!" Naruto shouted.

"Heh, if that's the case..." Yue smirked as she increased her speed, maneuvering the kid sh he wound up on her back, then she jumped at a wall.

"AHH! We're going to crash!" Naruto shouted as he closed his eyes as tight as possible, gripping onto the girl's waist and neck.

Yue hit the wall and rushed up it. She saw a fire escape on the wall behind her, so she back flipped off a small ledge under a window and landed on the metal balcony. She rushed up the stairs to the roof and started roof hopping to get to a nice quiet spot for a while.

A few moments after she had left, the potted plant on the window's ledge fell down and shattered, yet another victim of her recklessly tearing through the village. Thankfully, it was a cheap pot, pathetic soil and a simple flower. Nothing too pricy.

_[Fifteen minutes and two introductions later]_

"Yue-nee! That was sooo cool!" Naruto beamed.

"Hmm. That was nothing at all, I'm a tokubetsu jōnin. The day a chūnin can catch me is the day I become a genin again," Yue boasted as her ego inflated.

"You're a ninja! Hey! Can you teach me anything?" Naruto asked.

Yue thought about it. She did sort of like to teach people, so what the hell? Not like teaching him a bit would hurt anyone. Now, jutsu or knowledge? "How good are you with ninjutsu?"

Naruto looked a little sheepish. "Uh... I can't use bunshin no jutsu..."

"Can't use it? You suck?" Yue bluntly asked.

"NO! How can I suck when I'm going to become Hokage in the future?" Naruto asked.

Yue's eye brow rose. "The future Hokage, eh? But you can't even become a genin if you can't use the bunshin no jutsu," Yue stated despite being unable to use the jutsu herself. She was a special case though, having been taught the kage bunshin no jutsu by her deceased tutors. Having large chakra reserves was nice and all, but it made you look like a total retard when attending the academy. Now that she thought of it, maybe the classes should be made to include those with large chakra reserves, a method of helping them out. Nah, people like her were so rare in any one hidden village that the program would fall apart in a year unless it was international, which would never happen with how shinobi villages held their worthless grudges.

"Every time I use the bunshin no jutsu, I only make one and it looks like someone beat the crap out of it," Naruto said to himself.

Yue blinked. _'What the...'_ That sounded slightly familiar. "Hey, can you try to use it now?"

Naruto looked suspicious, figuring this older girl just wanted to laugh at him for being horrible at ninjutsu. Then again, she looked very interested and concerned. Naruto held his hands in the ram seal. **"Bunshin no jutsu!"** he shouted as chakra swirled around his body. As he expected, a stupid looked clone appeared.

_'Wh-what the hell? Is that how I looked all the time in the academy when I used chakra? And he actually produced a whole clone! I never did that!'_ Yue thought, then asked, "mind if I check something out?"

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked as his clone burst into smoke, the boy moving into a slightly defensive stance.

"My sensei taught me a way to sense chakra flow inside a person. I might be able to feel if anything is wrong,," Yue said.

"Really?" Naruto asked, thinking that maybe it was just a problem some medicine or something could fix. If that was the case, he'd become much better. Naruto could already train far longer than anyone else, but it didn't matter if he always messed up.

Yue performed a few rapid hand seals, then placed her hand over Naruto's heart as a dark blue aura that was bordering on black surrounded her hand. Yue wasn't blind to her own changing chakra, but she was a hanyō, so this could be normal. Almost instantly, she felt the strong flow of Naruto's chakra surging through his chakra network. _'No wonder he can't use the bunshin. This kid has so much chakra that, even if he had perfect control, it would overload the bunshin,'_ Yue thought as she received information from the jutsu. It was at that moment that she felt a brief, blazing flash of chakra slip through him. _'What was that?' I've got to find it again,'_ Yue thought as she moved her hand, changing the location of the scan. It might be the signs of a chakra disease or something, not that Yue was skilled enough to properly detect something like that. Naruto's large chakra reserves might just be amplifying the signs to the point that even Yue's extremely low level skill with medical ninjutsu could detect it.

The moment her hand went over his stomach, it felt like searing fangs bit her hand off.

Yue hissed as she yanked her hand back from the imagined maw. She still felt the heat seeping into her arm. It was almost like that fiery chakra had corrupted her or something. The strangest thing was this hot chakra felt...familiar, right even.

"What? What's wrong?" Naruto asked, worried.

"You have a lot of chakra," Yue said.

"So nothing's wrong?" Naruto whined, feeling a little down. Here he hoped it would be a quick fix. Well, Naruto knew that nothing was quick and easy in life to begin with, so he'd get over this hurdle sooner or later, then become the greatest Hokage.

Yue stood up and smiled at the kid. "Well, I can teach you one thing."

"What?" Naruto asked, practically hopping a bit.

The hanyō looked towards the village, remembering the glares she received, the verbal abuse she suffered and being forced out of stores. "This world is far harsher to some people. Fair treatment isn't always given, it must be earned. For those who aren't treated fairly by anyone, the road is long and hard."

She didn't see Naruto's eyes dull slightly. "I know that already..." Naruto half whispered, remembering the looks in the adults' eyes, the stuff they sometimes whispered to each other when their children couldn't hear.

Yue sighed. "Damn my luck, I came to the academy to find someone to teach this lesson to and I just happen to run into someone smart enough to know that already it. Interesting. Guess I'll try my hand at being a sensei for a while."

"Sensei? You mean at the academy?" Naruto asked.

Yue smiled as she looked at Naruto with one eye closed. "Nah, a sensei that teaches genin, real ninja."

Naruto got excited. "Hey hey! Can you teach me when I'm a ninja?"

_'Hmm. This kid is kinda fun to hang around with and he already knows how unbalanced this world can be. Besides, people with lots of chakra should be taught by someone similar. I remembering giving Anko a raging headache when I whined about it being hard to gather and control a tiny bit of chakra,'_ Yue thought. "Alright, I'll remember your name," she said, "say, you got any friends you'd like to be on your team?"

Naruto grabbed her hand and dragged her back to the academy.

_[Academy]_

The two were hidden in a bush near the back of the school where all the students were hanging out, waiting for class to start up again. Naruto parted the bushes so they could see. "Over there! That girl with the pink hair next to the teme with black hair," he whispered as he pointed at the pair.

Yue saw who he was talking about, kind of hard to miss such a rare hair color like that. The girl in question was trying to talk to the boy, but she was being ignored.

"Who're they?" Yue asked. For some reason, her blood boiled a bit while glaring at the black haired kid.

"That's Haruno Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme. Sasuke's an Uchiha, so he's good at everything and all the girls go stupid over him," Naruto explained with a frown.

Yue didn't like the kid and she didn't even know him. Her opinion of the Uchiha? They were gone and the world was better for it. Her few encounters with the clan had never been pleasant, her seemingly natural hatred towards them not helping matters much. She often wished she learned faster or been born a few years earlier, all so she could have started her 'reign of terror against property' early, right through their compound. For some odd reason, she never liked them. It was almost like a her blood carried a hatred for the Uchiha, almost like a 'Bloodline Hatred.'

Another girl walked into view and Yue's curiosity rose a notch. The girl in question had sort of short blonde hair, bright blue eyes and she had an air of confidence about her. Sakura almost instantly started to yell at the newcomer, allowing Sasuke to slip away while the girls went at it.

"Alright, Ino's here! The teme is on the run!" Naruto quietly cheered.

"Ino?" Yue asked. It sounded familiar, but Yue wasn't one for history, politics or clans. None of them really mattered to clanless ninja like her anyway. 'Rabble' such as her were not 'important' enough to be bothered with half of the time. Seriously, those from clans sometimes treated other people like their only purpose was to improve the clan's standing, in other words, a low bar to easily hop over. Yue made sure, on a few occasions, that the bar shot up, right into their mildly inbred balls. She couldn't stand class...ism or whatever it was called.

"Yamanaka Ino, one of the Sasuke idiots in my class. She's mean," Naruto said, remembering how she once compared him to a piece of gum on the bottom of a desk, annoying because you couldn't get rid of it or ignore it.

Yue's vision sharpened and her sight focused on the two girls, her ability to make out fine detail increasing drastically. _'Kami I hate this, but it's useful sometimes,'_ Yue thought as she continued to use her enhanced sight, making sure Naruto didn't see her eyes. Anko had seen this once and tried to get Yue to constantly use this ability, but it was something Yue felt better off without. She hated relying on the evil in her blood.

As she took in the two girls, Yue's eyes were drawn more to the Yamanaka girl as something strange happened. Her chest felt a little tight and her heart sped up a bit. Her mouth became as dry as the Land of Wind's deserts and the image of the girl was practically burned into her mind as her sight returned to normal, her concentration broken as she felt far hotter than before all of a sudden. She was practically on fire! _'D-did I just go further into heat?!'_ Yue panic thought as she started to feel very uncomfortable.

"Yue-nee? What's wrong?" Naruto asked.

Her gaze snapped to Naruto. "Wh-what?"

"Your face is all red," Naruto said as he pointed at her, "are you sick? You're nose is bleeding a bit too."

Yue rubbed under her nose, finding blood on her hand. "What? I just looked at her and-and my heart... What's wrong with me?"

Naruto's eyes became dinner plates. "YOU LIKE SAKURA-CHAN TOO!?"

Rustle. Snap! "Naruto! I finally found you!" Iruka shouted as he moved the bushes aside.

"Iruka-sensei? Oh crap, run nee-chan!" Naruto shouted, trying to flee himself.

"Who are you talking to?" Iruka asked as he grabbed Naruto's collar.

Naruto looked back into the bush, seeing no sign of the older girl at all. "Eh? Where did she go?"

Iruka sighed. "Enough, you will be stuck in detention today for smoke bombing the teacher's lounge."

"No way!" Naruto wailed.

On the rooftop of the school, Yue watched in silence, nobody sensing her at all. "I...like her... Yamanaka Ino," she muttered, then vanished with a sharp crack and a shower of sparks.

_[Anko's home, a few hours later]_

Anko heard the door open, then close. "Hey Koneko-chan, where were you?" she asked. Yue normally came home about two hours ago.

Yue was silent as she dropped onto Anko's couch and stared up at the ceiling, the cute Yamanaka girl's face appearing in her mind for a second, causing Anko's favorite cat girl to blush hard.

"Oh, what's this?" Anko asked in a teasing tone as she leaned against he back of the couch, looking down at the little kitten's upturned face, "could someone be sick?"

With the way she felt, Yue could call this a sickness. "Anko, I have a question."

Anko was in mischief mode, ready to spring like a cat on a mouse. "Ask away."

Yue gathered her courage. "What's... lo- love?"

_'Th-that's the last question I ever expected her to ask!'_ Anko thought as she stared stupidly at the girl. How could she answer the girl when she had her own love troubles? Maybe this way? "What do you think love is?"

Yue thought of the girl she seemed to like and the sensations came back. "I feel weak and useless. It feels like...like I'm burning up, more than when I go into heat. I'm having a hard time breathing. My chest hurts a bit too..."

"Well, that's part of what love is. It can make the weakest person powerful and vice versa," Anko said, then smiled at the confused girl, "trust me when I say this: one of these days, if things work out, that emotion will make you almost unstoppable. If it doesn't work out, love will destroy you."

Yue closed her eyes, wondering how an emotion that made her feel insignificant would grant her limitless strength. Being destroyed by it sounded more realistic.

"So... who's the lucky guy? Is it Jin?" Anko asked, looking for something to tease the girl about.

Yue scoffed. Jin was more or less a little brother to her now, and that was in spite of his painfully obvious feelings for her as well as him being older than her. He was the guy who helped her get through some tough times and fights in her life. She remembered her first kill. Jin and Lina had been scared of what they were capable of, but not Yue, she had known death ever since Urami tried to poison her, maybe even before that. She only asked why a person would cover their slit throat, trying to stop the obvious death that was headed towards them. Jin had told her that it was human nature to struggle, to try their best to get every moment of life they possibly could, even when death was inevitable.

"Not Jin, that's just seems so wrong. I think... No, I like someone else," Yue muttered as she looked forward at the wall.

Anko hugged Yue from behind, making sure to have her mouth right next to Yue's cat ear, all to make the girl feel a bit uncomfortable as she spoke and breathed. "You might as well tell me who. You know I'll find out eventually anyway," she whispered.

Yue shuddered from the sensation. Anko, blowing into a neko hanyō's ear while she was in heat was a very BAD idea. It could get you happily mauled. "A Yamanaka..."

Two people came to mind. "Koneko-chan... Inoichi is already married and Santa isn't interested in dark haired girls, he prefers redheads. He also seems to have a thing for older women," Anko said.

"N-not them! A girl named Ino!" Yue snapped, then slapped her hands over her mouth as she broke into a massive blush. _'I just fucked up!'_

Anko evilly grinned at her little sister as she tightened the hug. Oh, she knew who Yue was talking about, but it was play time! "Oh! So its a girl, huh?"

"I know girls aren't supposed to love each other, but I..." Yue trailed off, not knowing what to say.

Yue's worry killed the mood and Anko felt sad now, mainly because the girl didn't know all that much about love. "There's no law saying women can't love each other, same thing with guys. Keep this a secret, but you know Nai-chan, my friend?" Yue nodded. "Once we kinda... well...yeah." Anko wasn't a pervert, just easily excitable and crazy, especially when decaff was involved. Talking about her and Kurenai's roll in the den was a little bit too much, making the snake mistress blush a bit. Funny thing was that it had been Kurenai who dominated Anko, not the other way around.

Yue blushed, imagining her sensei, whose choice of clothing was barely above nudity with that red eyed beauty who occasionally visited Anko's place, doing _that_ with each other. The image was too much for Yue's still young mind and it overheated.

"So don't go listening to those idiot civilians who say that same sex relationships aren't right. Fact is, you love who you love. I would say go for it, but Inoichi is a problem," Anko said.

"Who's Inoichi?" Yue asked. She already forgot Anko mentioning him before.

Anko sighed. "Ino's father and the most doting man to ever exist. If he had his way, she wouldn't marry til she was in her thirties, maybe even later, not unless it is to someone he hand picks. I know for a fact that he won't approve of you at all."

"Why not? I'm a tokubetsu jōnin, I've never touched my savings, I've never gambled unless you count being a career shinobi, I've never killed any innocent people and I still do those chores we call D-rank missions," Yue growled. What did he want, a saint? Didn't the man want his daughter to have fun, to have children from that fun? Well, Yue couldn't have kids with the girl, but it could still be fun. She'd have to ask Anko how women did that later.

"No, none of those matter because you aren't a boy and he doesn't know your father," Anko half lied. Inoichi knew Yue's father when he was alive. It was partially due to Ruuko Nozomu and Namikaze Minato that Inoichi would never agree to allow Yue to even think of dating his daughter. The other reason was, of course, Yue and Ino being the same gender. "I've also heard him talking with his best friends, trying to figure which of their sons would be best for his little princess."

Yue felt that the man was downplaying his own child. "I'll change his mind," Yue muttered.

Anko shook her head. "No, he'll **shred** your mind if you try."

"S-shred?" Yue asked, not liking the way Anko said that word.

"That man wants his daughter to marry an Akimichi, a Nara or some guy he accepts. You try to interfere and you'll be put into a halfway house because he turned you into a drooling idiot," Anko warned.

"Ma-maybe I'll wait a while," Yue stammered. That man was fearsome in more ways than one.

"More like wait for reincarnation. Pray for the right gender next time," Anko said, then smirked, "still, don't give up just yet. Maybe she'll be like her mother in the future, being able to stand up to her father and make him accept you. Know what that means?"

Yue frowned, she did not like where this seemed to be going. "No...?"

Anko pulled out a camcorder. "When she's thirteen, you're going to confess your feelings to her and I'm going to record every second of it!" Did she mention that she had decaff an hour ago?

Yue was beginning to regret talking to Anko about this. Then again, she did feel much better now. "Maybe I will," she said as she looked out the window, seeing two flowers being sheltered by a twisted plant, possibly a vine of some sort. It didn't make sense, but seeing that strange group of plants made her feel good about the future.

_[A few days later]_

Yue turned to her teammates. She didn't know it, but this was the mission her life would turn for the worst. "Alright, listen up. Our target is a kunoichi that summons multiple creatures to terrorize the forest as well as the village near the target location. We are going to make it so the only thing she summons is a prison guard so she can be fed and watered," Yue said. She was dressed in standard jōnin uniform, which kind of annoyed her. Normal clothing was good enough for this mission. That and she looked ridiculous with the flak jacket and the forehead protector worn on her head. Her cat ears were precious to her, but they didn't let her wear a forehead protector the normal way, forcing her to tie it at an increased angle. She took solace in her teammates being dressed in standard chūnin uniforms, which they didn't like either.

"Why do we have to wear these?" Jin asked as he tried to get rid of that heavy feeling the vest gave him around his shoulders.

Lina sighed. "Do remember that things between us and Kumo aren't going too well because they believe she's a Konoha missing-nin. We are going fairly close to their border, so we need to show that we aren't trying to spy on them." She then tried to get more air to her wrists and forearms, which she normally kept bare.

"Let's get this over with so we can wear our normal clothes," Yue said.

"Yeah!" Lina and Jin cheered, hating every moment in these outfits.

The three made their way to the last known location of the 'Summoning Kunoichi.'

_[Ten days later, near Kumo]_

It was pouring! Almost monsoon level!

"I love rain much more than the next person, but not when I got to wear this thing!" Yue shouted as she tried to get rid of the weight on her chest. Her usual jacket had deep pockets with hidden tool slots, vial holders and scroll carriers within it, allowing her to carry around what was currently in her vest pockets and then some. Why couldn't this woman set up shop in Suna? It was damn cold going through Frost, even with these uniforms. Maybe they'd hit up Yu on the way back, soak in a hot spring after nearly freezing to death.

"You aren't the only one," Lina grumbled. It almost felt like she'd need surgery to remove this outfit later.

"Well, we're about twenty minutes out of the target location, shall we stop and come up with a plan?" Jin asked.

"Uh, you two do that. I don't really like plans since they never work," Yue said as she started surveying the area. She wasn't coming up with a plan, she was checking out the area so she wouldn't accidentally run into a tree or something. To her, knowing the battlefield was far more important than knowing her enemy. One time, she made a dumbass bandit impale himself on a broken branch while he was running from her.

Jin and Lina started to work out a plan to capture their target. A person who seemed to rely completely on summoning would be easy to fight, but the fact that their target summoned large groups of fair strength animals made getting to her a bit of a problem. First, they'd have to make the woman summon enough that escape via jutsu would be harder for her due to exhaustion. Second, getting through said summons would have been hard, but the area was a miniature swamp now and Yue could just send a few thousand volts of raiton through the water and take care of most of their opponents. That brought up problem three: where would the three Konoha-nin stand to avoid getting jolted as well.

"Yue, can you see any place to stand that isn't ankle deep in water or drenched?" Jin asked.

"Suna!" Yue answered.

Jin wanted to point out that he didn't need sarcasm, but he knew she was right, maybe. He turned back to Lina, "raiton is out."

Well, life never handed out easy breaks. So they'd have to fight off the creatures themselves. At some point, Jin and Yue would have to break through so the woman could be disabled and captured alive. Lina figured that she'd throw one of her Fūma Shuriken at that point, making the creatures scatter enough so Yue and Jin could get to the woman. Jin came up with a method of improving their chances of breakthrough by proposing that he and Yue use the slick ground to their advantage and slide under the shuriken with the aid of chakra. Lina quickly agreed, mostly due to it ruining the uniforms for a while and rendering them unwearable.

Now came the hard part.

"Yue! We got a plan!" Lina shouted.

"I can hear you just fine, baka!" Yue snapped.

_[Three hours later]_

It was still raining, but the three ninja knew that it would help them much more than their enemy. Even if you could summon large numbers of animals, none could use chakra and they'd probably have trouble on this wet terrain. Scent would, as Yue had already pointed out, be beaten down by the rain. The sound would also make it more difficult for an animal to properly fight, so the shinobi had all the advantages.

Lina clicked her radio on twice, then said, "I sense a group approaching. Four minutes out." The two confirmed with a brief click of their radios and remained hidden.

Five Kumo-nin on border patrol walked into view. One of them stopped for a moment, then signaled to his team to scatter and set up for an ambush, which they did.

"Plans always get screwed up," Yue growled into her mic, "listen, I'll be bait to get those guys to spring their trap, then maybe they'll leave so we can reset our trap."

"Careful," Lina whispered back as the tokubetsu jōnin made her way into the clearing.

The moment Yue made it to the middle of the open area, four of the five Kumo-nin were surrounding her with kunai pointed (way!) down at her neck. "Halt! State your business!" one of them, the obvious leader snapped.

Yue resisted the urge to glare up at the man and chattered slightly, much like a cat hunting birds. "We're here on a mission concerning the summoner in this area," Yue stated.

One of the others looked to his leader. "See! I told you that summoner was from Konoha! This freak is here to resupply her!"

"We wouldn't resupply a missing-nin, or even an active ninja if they were performing random attacks on unmarked civilian targets anywhere. The only reason we would be out here would be to hunt them down and bring them to justice. BUT the ninja we are here for doesn't have anything to do with Konoha at all," Yue explained.

"Like we can trust your words, demon slut's daughter," another man spat.

Yue had enough of this crap, she got enough verbal abuse back home courtesy of the civilians she wanted to protect. "Jin! Lina! Get out here!" she ordered.

The two chūnin stood up and walked out, hands up to show they were unarmed and not using any jutsu. Jin stood to Yue's left while Lina was on the right.

"You can check our supplies as well as our base camp, we don't have anything for that criminal and we don't have a large force with us," Jin stated as he pointed to their camp.

The leader whistled low and that sent one of his men to go check the camp. The three Konoha-nin had no doubt that the hidden man was watching over the one who went to check.

Five minutes later, the man was back. "They're telling the truth. They barely have enough supplies for three people to return to Konoha."

"No proof at all," the nut from before said, "for all we know, they already delivered the supplies to her and were trying to sneak out before we found them."

Jin looked at the leader with a dull expression. "Can you please tell me he isn't a conspiracy nut?"

The leader looked at him. "No, he is."

The conspiracy man looked around. "They probably got men circling us right now. Or maybe that summoner ringed us with vicious monsters already."

"Definitely a dateless virgin. He'll probably blame someone else for it," Lina said.

"It's all the civilian governments' fault that women don't look at me!" the nut shouted.

The Kumo leader sighed. "Lower your weapons," he ordered.

"But sir!" one of the others protested.

"If they wanted to, we'd all be bloody chunks of gore right now. Those two could have stayed in hiding and put a kunai in our throats while distracted by this one, but the Feral Feline called them out and showed us they were non-hostile," the leader said as he pointed to the three foreigners.

The men listened and put their kunai away.

"Feral...what? Forget that. This mission..." Yue stopped, starting to think.

The leader waited for a few moments, then chuckled a bit. "Let me guess: team up to take her down?"

Yue grinned. "Yeah, that's the easiest way and it will show that psycho isn't part of our village."

"I...dislike being called that."

"What the-" Yue started, but stopped when wolves swarmed the clearing, triggering a battle.

Lina's large shuriken made an appearance almost instantly, being used as backwards razors against the gray animals that leapt from the shadows. Jin had a pair of kunai out and was striking at the beasts, cutting at their necks and legs. Yue's katanas lashed out, carving through the animals while she performed a terrible (skill wise) dance through the wolves. All three of them had cuts, scratches and even a few teeth marks within a few minutes.

The Kumo ninja did their best by throwing kunai at individual wolves as well as striking them down with taijutsu. The leader caught a wolf in mid-air, holding it up by its jaws for a moment before pulling, snapping its jaws.

"Aww, you're hurting all my pretty pets," the woman mock whined from an unknown location, "guess I'll send my less-than-pretty babies after you." 

Rather than seeing the creatures themselves, the assembled ninja saw their effects almost instantly. A strand of something shot out of the darkened woods, hitting Lina in the leg and started to drag her away.

Yue saw this, kicked a wolf away, jumped into the air and threw four shuriken to snap the thread that had caught her teammate.

"Whatever she's using, it specializes in long ranged sneak attacks," one of the Kumo-nin warned.

Yue stopped fighting. There wasn't any point in combat. These things, despite looking like beasts, weren't animals or regular summons. They disintegrated soon after death, meaning they were some sort of doll. This meant that the woman hadn't summoned anything yet. But, in spite of them not being animals, they still possessed the same instincts and mentality of animals. This woman made dolls and placed spirits inside them.

That's why the hanyō stopped fighting. She was the 'top' of the food chain, meaning she didn't fight lesser beings.

Yue turned and her right hand shot out, getting caught up on that thread. She yanked hard, pulling the enemy in.

"CHK! CHK! CHEEEEE!" the attacker, a spider the size of a large dog, cried out as it flew into the clearing.

Carnivorous predators didn't fight, they **hunted** lesser beings.

Yue hauled her left handed sword back and plowed it forward as the spider came at her, cutting it wide open at the back and killing it. The momentum kept the corpse or any of its fluids from landing on Yue.

"Catch the thread and pull 'em in!" she shouted. She used a few jolts of lightning to cook the webbing off her hand. These WERE summons, not simple animal dolls.

To make that hard, the wolves jumped back into the clearing and started to attack again, luckily there were far less of them this time.

"Gwah!" a kumo-nin shouted as a thread hit his face and yanked him towards the woods. A few wolves jumped after him, but Jin managed to kill them all and free the man with a flurry of thrown kunai. The Kumo-nin leader nodded to him in thanks as he made his way to the man, intending to guard him while the man pulled the webbing off his face.

Yue caught a wolf in mid-lunge, holding it up by its neck. "You're pissing me off," she growled, then punched it in the torso so its neck and ribs broke. She threw it towards the woods behind her, letting one of the hidden spiders drag the wolf away.

Once the number of wolves thinned, the woman spoke again. "Could you be...Hmm. Yes, yes you are one. There's no mistaking that chakra, those fuzzy and cute little ears."

"What is she talking about?" a Kumo-nin asked.

The leader of the Kumo-nin shook his head. "I don't know."

Yue paled. "She's got a loli cat girl fetish, and I fit her tastes?"

"She's crazy," the nut said.

"I think its time I take my reward," the woman said, then dozens of threads shot out and pinned all Yue's limbs from multiple angles.

"What the hell?! Let go!" she shouted as she struggled to break free. Bondage wasn't her thing!

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. I'm not letting such a valuable toy go. Do you know how rare you are, Kazeneko?" the summoner asked.

"Come out here so I can spit in your face! Or bite your throat!" Yue yelled. As a response, she was pulled back against a tree and tied to it.

"I think not, there are some annoying flies around you and I think my pets are hungry," the woman's voice floated in. More wolves and spiders moved into the clearing, intent on taking care of Yue's teammates and the Kumo-nin.

Yue watched helplessly as the Kumo-nin struggled with webbing and quick moving wolves. It didn't help that some of the spiders appeared to emit a poison gas that steadily weakened everyone who was entirely human.

"Dammit! Let me out!" Yue shouted.

"Not happening, I can't let them damage such a precious find," the woman stated.

Yue growled and struggled, finding no give in her bindings. Without that angle, Yue forced raiton into the webs to try and cook them hard so she could break them. It was starting to work, but she was also burning herself in the process.

Clink!

"Guh!" Yue groaned as the spider that bit her hopped off her. Even though she was only half human, the poison burned enough that she couldn't properly focus her raiton without shocking herself too.

Jin saw Yue get bit and he felt horrible, being unable to help the girl he loved. His whole life was being taunted for having an inability to use byakugan, but he tried his best to surpass that weakness. He became a decent ninja in spite of his handicap, but one of his goals never presented itself: saving the woman he loved. It was stupid to decide that a person, who is far stronger than you are, was the one you wished to protect at least once in your life, but Jin wanted it anyway. He knew she didn't love him, not the way he loved her, but he still wanted to be there for her. And now it was finally here, the chance to save her. What could he do? What could Jin ever do without byakugan? Nothing.

No. He didn't need special eyes to save her. He didn't need a clan's strength to save her. All he needed was his will, the burning desire to make her live through this mission. That was what made a shinobi, not their jutsu.

Jin promised himself once more, that with all his might, he'd be there for Yue. He felt a searing pain in his eyes. All of a sudden, he could see everything around him, the rain, the chakra and the pathways inside a person's bodies. He could even see the virus working through Yue's body, forcing back her dark blue chakra. "No!" Jin shouted as he ran forward. Two wolves jumped at him and he struck their necks, sealing off the chakra traveling down their spines, killing them. A spider shot a web at him from behind, but he moved aside and the spider wound up getting a bunch of leaves instead. He didn't even pay heed to the now fallen shinobi around him, knowing they wouldn't be killed until he went down as well.

Jin made it to Yue and used a kunai to cut her loose. She slumped to the ground, but he caught her and checked her vitals, finding her to be fading fast. His eyes fell to her cheek, to the mark, no, seal there. He had researched it and hated it almost as much as the seal on his own forehead. His seal was something to inflict pain. Her seal was something to inflict slavery, but it also granted her a second chance if her 'master' willed it.

"Forgive me for this, but I will do anything to save you," he whispered to the girl as he cut his hand with the kunai and dripped some of his blood into her mouth. He watched the seal on her face and neck glow as if it were filled with red liquid, felt the slight tremors in her body as it changed to accommodate a contract. He then did something he'd hate for the rest of his life.

"Kazeneko Yue. As your master, I command you to stand up and live!" he harshly ordered.

Yue's eyes shot open, black liquid being forced out of her neck as she got back to her feet in an almost unnatural way. The blankness in her eyes cleared almost instantly. "What...happened?" she asked, her memory a blur since the bite.

"Yue... I'm so sorry," Jin whispered from the ground behind her, feeling so disgusted with himself that he couldn't stand.

Yue saw him there, felt some kind of link between them and she knew that he had done something to heal her. "Jin, I don't know what you did, but I'll finish this bitch off."

"My, my. That poison dose was too much? Good thing that boy performed the ritual, but I'll need to kill him and reset the contract to myself," the woman said as she finally showed her face. She was about twenty years old. She wore a red jacket that almost reached the ground and had slits up the sides to her waist, allowing her legs to have free range of motion. Black sandals were on her feet, belt-like bindings winding up her leg to mid thigh in a wildly crisscrossing pattern. Short black hair barely made it to the brown fur collar of her jacket, her green eyes staring at the hanyō in front of her as she fiddled a bit with the fur on the ends of the sleeves. Yue had to admit the woman was attractive with her gorgeous face, great curves and that beauty mark under her eye, but this woman was an enemy. And Yue had Ino in her heart as well, so there was no room for this woman. That and the whip on her belt wasn't something Yue was interested in. Pain did NOT equal pleasure.

"Who are you?" Yue asked, not that she really cared all that much.

"I'm Zoe, the summon queen. It is my goal in life to have the ability to summon from every single contract in this world, as well as all the rare creatures available to be summoned," the woman, Zoe said.

"Sorry to say this, but I can't summon and I don't think humans can be summoned, unless you're behind bars of course," Yue said.

Zoe smiled. "Oh humans can be summoned. I helped a rather interesting man with that little trick. Now stand aside while I kill the boy."

Yue started using every ounce of power she had, releasing all the gates she could safely open. "Sorry, but I'm going to have to defeat you now."

The woman bit on her nail, then swung her whip at the ground, creating a bright flash.

BOOM!

Now Yue was looking WAY up at her as the woman stood on a large spider. "That's cheating!" Yue shouted.

The woman didn't listen, just cracked her whip and got the spider to lift its foreleg, aiming for Lina.

Yue ran up the closet of the spider's legs and jumped at the attacking limb, swinging one of her swords at it.

Snap!

Yue closed her eyes and stuck to the spider's foreleg while leaning back, avoiding the fragments of steel that flew back at her face. "Damn, looks like I need to go even faster." 

"Try it!" Zoe challenged, then blinked when Yue became a blur coming at her. "D-damn!" the woman shouted as she jumped off the spider, falling to the ground.

Yue kicked off the spider, managing to catch the woman and hitting some trees to soften the fall. "Sorry, orders are to bring you in alive," Yue stated, only to lose hold of the woman.

"I'm nowhere near done yet," Zoe growled, then summoned a large eagle, a giant snake and an armored salamander.

"What the hell? You shouldn't have the chakra for that!" Yue shouted.

Zoe chuckled from the back of the eagle. "That's just how we of the Uzumaki clan are. We're all gifted with vast amounts of life force, making us superior to normal shinobi."

"Too bad I'm not normal either," Yue said as she went through the seals, "I can't summon like you can, but I got my own army. **Tajū Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"** Two hundred Yues appeared as the original stumbled a bit, feeling the massive bite to her chakra. It wasn't as bad as last time though.

The woman's summons struck at the army of clones as it moved in on them, trying to get to the woman before she could get away on her eagle. They were too slow and the bird took off.

"Heh, maybe next time Kazeneko! Though I'll be making you mine next time," Zoe boasted.

"Go get 'er, mistress!" a clone shouted with a raised fist.

"Rip that bitch's face off!" a clone ordered as she gave Zoe the finger.

"Make her your slave, Yue-sama!" a perverted clone squealed with a heavy blush.

"**Omote Renge!"** one of Yue's clones shouted as it threw Yue and one of her other clones at the eagle.

Zoe panicked, then smirked when the two started to slow down.

Yue grinned and the clone grabbed her arm. **"Omote Renge!"** the clone roared as it threw Yue, proving to be a means of sending Yue farther.

"Nope, you're coming back with me!" Yue stated as she drew closer.

The eagle swiped its talon down on Yue, sending her straight down at the ground. "You should be able to make some clones to cushion your fall, so we'll meet again," Zoe said as she departed on her eagle.

Yue fell at high speeds. _'Damn, I can't make any more clones and all the others are gone now. How am __I going to get out of this one?'_ she wondered.

Two dozen feet from the ground, Yue was snatched out of the air and she was safely brought to the ground. Yue looked at the one who saved her, seeing the Kumo-nin leader. "Going that far, you're either suicidal or you really hate to lose," he said as he set Yue down on the ground.

"Just...insane," Yue muttered as she wobbled. Blowing through most of her chakra and then falling a few hundred feet had worn her out.

The Kumo-nin leader looked towards the fleeing form of Zoe. "Looks like she's headed towards Kiri. She's the Hunter-nin's problem now," he stated.

"Che! I could have gotten her," Yue grumbled.

The man merely sighed, knowing the persistent type too well. "We can escort you for a while," he offered as they got to the other shinobi, finding Jin administering a broad spectrum antidote to the last of the Kumo-nin.

"Nah, I'll carry Lina back home on my own," Yue said with a grin.

Jin looked at Yue. "Huh? Why didn't you call her a baka like normal?"

Yue smiled gently at her unconscious teammate. "Friends call each other nicknames all the time. Before I knew it, her's was baka. She's not awake, so there's no point in saying it. Also, don't tell her I went all mushy like this. I got a reputation to protect!"

Jin chuckled, knowing that Yue cared about all her friends in spite of acting the way she did. She had what some people called 'cattitude,' which was a word meaning your cat was a tsundere. "Well, mission successful?" he asked.

Yue sighed. "Yeah, we're still alive and we can get home." She threw away her shattered sword's sheath and belt, adjusted the remaining one and and then picked Lina up and rested the girl on her back.

_[Three days from Konoha]_

Yue sat in the camp, doing the only thing she could do when they camped: tending the fire. Well, she made it to begin with, so all she needed to do when it went out was restart it with a bit of fire breath and add some wood to keep it going. It wasn't her fault that all her cooking skills amounted to burning things to a crisp or setting water on fire. And so what if all the fish scattered as soon as she approached a river? She just intimidated them because she was the ultimate predator, here at least.

",,,They're taking too long," Yue mused to herself as she got up. Jin should have been back already with the fish and Lina was just getting some more wood. She knew the two weren't doing anything with each other since Lina wasn't really interested in love yet. Yue first went to the spot Lina was supposed to be cutting down some small trees, finding a pile of wood and no brunette. Next, Yue made her way to the river, finding nothing there at all, that included the fish that normally went up and down stream as soon as she came close.

Yue sighed and focused on her senses of smell and hearing, trying to get a sign of her teammates. She caught their scents, but there were no heartbeats in Yue's hearing range other than her own. The scents of Jin and Lina were faint, but she could still follow them.

After ten minutes of following the faint trails of her friends, she caught their heartbeats, and a few others. She dropped into the clearing, drawing her sword and flipping it into a reverse grip, ready to speed kill anyone who came at her.

"Welcome, Kazenenko-san," an...ANBU(?) greeted. The uniform was all messed up, seemingly consisting only of a short jacket and mask if the two others in the clearing were proof. Under that was what looked like their normal clothes.

"Who the hell are you?" Yue growled, seeing the two tantō that were held to her friends' necks were lacking points. The weapons were clearly made solely for slashing. These guys were in the business of contract murder: assassination.

"We have a proposition for you," the man said as he held up one of those jackets, a mask and one of the tantōs, "join Ne ANBU."

"Root? I've never heard of a sub division of ANBU with that name," Yue said as she shifted her stance a bit.

The ANBU calmly put the objects down. "For one like you, who seeks to protect Konoha from all threats, Ne ANBU would be perfect for you. Our leader is willing to forgo the normal training one has to go through, as well as ignoring your racial issue, just for your power," he explained.

Yue charged forward, only to hit a wire net and get tossed back. She swung her sword down on the stupid barrier, finding that it only tangled her sword up. _'I don't want to tip my hand, but I have to just __to get through this thing.'_ With a flourish of her sword, the net came apart.

"That's enough," an older sounding man said, but didn't show himself, "release the Hyūga."

The ANBU complied and even gave his tools back to him. Jin sort of stumbled a bit, then slowly walked up to Yue.

"Jin, let's get them and free Li-" she started, then dodged backwards as her friend's kunai swung at her face, "Jin! What are you doing?"

The Hyūga looked at her, his byakugan active and almost completely blank. He moved forward and jabbed at Yue's shoulder, intending to disable her, but he missed.

"Dammit! What happened to Jin?" Yue demanded.

"Just a little trick to make him want to kill you. This is your test: kill your 'brother' without remorse," the old man ordered.

Yue caught Jin's kunai on her sword and sent it flying out of his hand with a flick of her wrist. She then swung down, cutting off his tool pouch, kicking it far away. "There, now I can just knock him out and then deal with these strange ANBU, and you of course," Yue boasted to the unseen man.

Jin hit her in the left shoulder, numbing everything below what he hit. Yue hissed as she dropped her sword and jumped back. _'What's going on? Jin isn't that good yet. This just got a lot harder.'_

Jin moved in and repeatedly struck at his friend, trying to disable her major joints. He managed to land a glancing blow on her neck, but it didn't do anything. Yue started lashing back after that, aiming to knock Jin out with surprise attacks that didn't work due to his byakugan.

Jin landed an open palm blow on Yue's chest, throwing her back as her heart beat erratically from the blow.

A man stepped into the clearing, one Yue knew. "Well, I hope that didn't destroy you," he said.

"You're...Shimura Danzō," Yue gasped as her heartbeat started to regulate itself. Thank Kami Jin wasn't that good at the Jūken. Still hurt like a bitch though.

The bandaged man nodded slightly. "Yes and my offer still stands: kill this boy and you will be both ANBU and protector of Konoha."

Yue forced herself up and onto her feet, feeling a little battered. She still hadn't fully recovered from using so many clones a few days ago, but Danzō was a cripple with one eye and arm, so he shouldn't be so tough. She jumped at the man.

"No, you won't attack me," he stated as he swung his cane at her, knocking her away with ease. "Jin, keep beating her until she submits to my will."

Jin picked Yue off the ground, holding her up by her neck. Yue couldn't do anything other than use _that_ again and she locked eyes with Jin. "Put...me...down!" Yue ordered as her chakra spiked to its limit.

Jin's empty eyes widened and his hand opened, dropping Yue on the ground. "Yue...what..." he muttered as he held a hand to his head, his eyes regaining life.

Danzō looked annoyed. "Jin, close your wings." The Hyūga gripped his head harder as the pain increased.

"What are you doing to him?" Yue demanded as she glared at the old war hawk.

"Reactivating the suggestion," Danzō simply stated.

Jin's eyes were starting to go blank again, but he was still there. "Yue! Please..." he started.

"Don't worry, I'll-" Yue started as she picked up her sword, holding it in a revers grip to remove the threat of death to her teammate.

"Kill me!" Jin ordered.

"What?" Yue started, then everything went blank for a moment, or maybe longer. She came back to her senses, tired and panting from exertion. Just looking at the shadows told her it was almost an hour later.

"Yue..."

The girl in question looked to the source of the voice and almost threw up. It was Jin that had called her name, or what was left of him. One of his hands was cut off at the wrist, his stomach was obviously slashed open due to the amount of blood around him and his right eye was closed with blood flowing from it. What bothered her, as she looked down, was the blood on her sword as well as her hands, and the trail of blood between them. "I did this?" she asked herself. She didn't even care about her vest being wrecked.

"I wanted this," Jin said, "I don't know how, but Danzō was controlling me. I'd rather be dead than kill my friends."

That little speech didn't help Yue any. She had killed before, but this was the first one she regretted.

"Yue, do you love anyone?" Jin asked.

Yue nodded, feeling guilty that she couldn't say it was him. For him to die like this, by her hand while she loved someone else, it just felt horrible.

"Who is she?" he asked, shocking Yue. "I figured it would be a girl that would take you heart because of how you have been all this time, hating all the other boys and spending time with girls and me. I want to know who it is that lives within your heart before I die," Jin explained.

"Yamanaka Ino," Yue admitted.

Jin smiled lightly. "Yue, don't make it so she is forced to kill you. It's so painful, fighting the one you love. These wounds are nothing compared to the pain I felt when I hurt you."

"Jin... We can still..." Yue stopped, knowing there was no way he'd survive ten minutes let alone the day it would take for them to get him home. Hell, they couldn't even move him in his current state. Even with the best medics, there was no coming back from his wounds. She hadn't held back at all...

Jin motioned for Yue to come closer. She sat down beside him, resting on her legs. Jin placed his remaining, bloody hand on her cheek. "Yue, I love you with all my heart. I know you never loved me the way I love you, but that won't stop me from feeling this way. No matter what happens from now on, I'll watch over you from the afterlife," he vowed.

Yue reached out, removing the forehead protector from Jin's head. She concentrated chakra and yōki to her fingertips and placed them on his forehead. "The only thing I can do for you is breaking the cage..." Yue muttered as she removed her fingers from his forehead, the seal on Jin's forehead was gone.

"Yue..." he muttered, then started to cry a bit, "birthday present?"

Yue nodded. "Sorry I was so late. It took a lot of work to learn it, a lot more to learn how to undo it."

Jin pulled Yue into a hug. "Promise me that you'll destroy all the cages." Yue nodded. "Promise me that you'll never turn your back on Konoha." Yue nodded as he felt tears on his shoulder. "Promise me that you'll never let Ino feel my pain."

"I promise," Yue whined, unable to stop crying as burning tears forced their way out of her tightly shut eyes.

The Hyūga smiled one last time, sadly. "Yue, I was trying to think of the perfect present to get you on your birthday, something that would be useful and remind you of me all the time. You're hard to shop for."

"Sorry," Yue warbled. She was picky and it was the first time she hated that part of herself.

"I finally found you something. I don't know if you'll like it or not, but it will always be useful to you and you will never forget me," Jin said as he hugged her a little more tightly for a moment and whispered the name of the gift in her ear, then his arms went limp and cold as Yue's eyes started to bleed and burn, her hair and eyes dulling while her tail and ears receded. Her seal turned a dark blue color, the contract broken.

Yue stood up, anger surging through her. She wordlessly roared as she turned and ran at Danzō, her sword held back.

The man simply swung his cane up, striking her wrist and making her drop the sword. "Raising your hand against me, you truly are a foolish beast," the man said as he jabbed forward, intending to knock the girl out with a blow to her forehead. Yue caught the weapon and yanked it out of his hand, then swung it at his head, only for his to raise his 'injured' arm and block it, a dull metal clonk resounding from the impact. "I'm not so weak that a little kitten like you could even harm me," he stated as he took his cane back and punched Yue away.

Yue glared at the man, ignoring the blood that partially obscured her vision, making everything slightly fuzzy. "I don't care how, I'll be the reason you die in the future," Yue threatened as she held her still hurting wrist.

Danzō frowned slightly. "From what I can see, that may be true, but the day I die is far into the future. I'll be sure to remember your curse and be wary of you, since Nekomata are well known for their curses. Still, you won't remember I was even here. You and you alone will bear the guilt for your teammate's death, demon."

Yue was confused. "Are you going senile, old man? Those bandages on your head covering up some heavy impact scars? Anyone who asks me will know that you somehow controlled Jin and you will be brought to justice, just like me."

Danzō took hold of his bandages. "Funny you should mention these. Let me show you what is beneath them, since you won't remember this."

Yue was going to throw a good insult at the man, but stopped when his face was uncovered and she saw his eye. "That's...sharingan?"

Danzō nodded. "And now, you will forget about me and my Ne ANBU," the man commanded.

"I'll never-!" Yue started yelling.

"**Kotoamatsukami**," Danzō stated as he locked eyes with Yue. While he was in her mind, he made the girl construct her nigh unbreakable mental blocks over the memories of himself and his ANBU during the course of this day. Due to his use of the genjutsu, Yue would assume she had gotten into some sort of argument with the Hyūga and killed him over it. Due to her memories being sealed, she'd assume it was all the act of her murdering him. With her being in heat, it was far more believable that she'd snap.

Danzō left the girl's mind and flashed a quick hand signal, making Lina stand up and walk over to the still dazed Yue.

Lina drew her Fūma Shuriken as Danzō and his men left. She seemed to come out of it, looking at Jin and then at the girl kneeling before her. "Why'd you kill him? I thought we were all friends," Lina stated, her voice starting to shake.

"I...I...won't...forget," Yue muttered. What wouldn't she forget? She saw Jin's body and the blood all over her hands. She wouldn't ever forget this night, the night she killed her teammate for some odd reason. His final words to her would haunt her for however long she lived after this.

Lina was crying now. She didn't want to do this, not to her friend. She quickly swung her weapon, the edged tip cleanly slicing through Yue's neck.

Yue's hand shot over the wound, attempting to stop the bleeding. "Igh," Yue gurgled, stopping when she felt pain shoot through her neck. _'She clipped my vocal cords a bit?'_ the girl thought. Even as she felt herself grow weaker, she found it funny that she was human enough to struggle in the face of an obvious death. Yue looked up at Lina one last time, using her eyes to show that she regretted this night more than anything else, then fell over as she kept her hands over her torn open neck. As she started passing out from blood loss, she saw a brunette and a blonde running up to her, shouting things to her. The last thing she felt was a warm chakra going into her neck, and some large chakra signatures coming her way.

Worst of all, Yue could hear Lina crying over losing both of her teammates.

When Yue awoke a week later, she was already in her cell and under heavy chakra restraints. When she got out, a year and a half later, the old Yue was dead and gone. She no longer wanted to be ANBU, she didn't even feel like she should have lived that night.

Above all, she forgot about Danzō and his hand in Jin's death.

_'I can't...die yet... I haven't paid for my crimes.'_

_'Danzō... I have to tell Konoha about him too. Why'd I forget like that?'_

Yue heard a garbled voice in her head, only catching the order to destroy Sasuke. She decided it was the madness induced by the curse seal on her neck. She stood up, feeling tired and injured. She barely had enough chakra for _that,_ but she'd need it.

One of the two lightning bolts that flew down at them, the paler negative lightning, struck a few inches before Sasuke's chidori, allowing the blade to cut through it. This wasn't proof of Sasuke's skills, just how heavily he relied on the curse seal's power. The image still sent his ego level through the roof, making him believe in his own 'greatness.'

The bright bolt of lightning, the bright positive lightning, lanced down at Yue's head, but arced at the last moment and struck her hand, wrist and elbow. It briefly took on a form, but vanished as Yue felt some of her strength return to her. Not enough for a prolonged fight, but enough to kill with a lucky strike.

She caught Sasuke's hand behind the wrist and twisted it, hearing a snap from the fragile bones. With his wrist finished for a while, Yue released him and kicked him in the gut.

"Hoh, still got some fight in you?" Orochimaru asked, wondering what she had done with the lightning that hit her. He'd never heard of a jutsu like that, but only a few Onmyōton were known to this world.

_'Just one,'_ Yue thought as she formed a spiral of chakra over her right hand. It was that rasengan technique Jiraiya taught Naruto, but only at the second stage. Yue pushed all her chakra into it, making it grow larger in size, becoming large enough to cover an entire torso. She looked at the man, feeling pain burn through her eyes and head. "One last try." She jumped at the man, thrusting the partial rasengan forward.

Orochimaru side stepped the attack at the last moment, the edge of the jutsu clipping his hair slightly. "Your anger is gone. You are no longer a threat," he stated as Yue fell to the ground behind him. He didn't even need to attack her anymore, she was finished. He turned and picked her up by the neck, not strangling her, just holding her in the air. "Kukuku. You still interest me, Ruuko-chan. I still need all your secrets," he hissed.

Yue hissed in pain after twitching slightly. Orochimaru looked down, seeing a kunai just under her ribs and breastbone as some blood dripped off the handle.

"I won't let anyone take my place," Sasuke stated, his arm still stretched from throwing the very kunai he had planned to kill Naruto with, "I need more power, enough to kill Itachi!"

Orochimaru put Yue onto the ground, leaving the kunai embedded in her body. She wasn't beyond his ability to preserve, but Sasuke would destroy her if Orochimaru showed further interest in her. He'd send a few chūnin to pick her up in a few minutes. He would have sent Kabuto, but the poor medic was in need of a physician himself. "Of course, Sasuke-kun. First we'll treat that wrist, then you'll start to gain the power you rightfully deserve," the snake said as he and Sasuke started to walk towards the lair. They got about ten yards away when Sasuke pitched forward and fell to the ground, gripping his badly bleeding side. Orochimaru saw the damage, then saw the bloodied kunai that had done it a few feet in front of them. He looked back to see Yue, blood dripping out of her wound.

"I-I'll make it easier for him. I couldn't save my teammate...but Naruto will never repeat my mistakes," Yue gasped, then fell from her injuries.

Orochimaru wanted nothing more than to kill Yue for damaging his future body, but he could tell that she was already as good as dead, that and he didn't have the nerve to kill a Kazeneko. He took his badly injured student and left, seeing Kabuto stand up and start following at his own pace.

_'I lost a valuable research subject, but I'm sure I can immortalize myself in Sasuke-kun without that hanyō's abilities or researching the effectiveness of her curse seal. I'm stronger this time, I will have my sharingan!'_ Orochimaru thought. He also hoped that Sasuke killing Yue wouldn't come back to haunt them later.

"I'm back from my mission," a man stated.

"And how did the retrieval go?" another man asked.

The first man placed a battered young woman on the ground. "I only managed to find one of them, the snake's pawn."

"What of Ruuko Yue?" the second man asked.

The first shook his head. "I found signs of a battle and blood, but a trail of blood led off into a deeper part of the forest and then vanished."

The second man stood up and started pacing. "Any clues as to what happened to her?"

"There was a sense of what I think might have been an Onmyōton in the area. Her blood also seemed strange, dead but still alive," the first man reported.

The second man hummed to himself. _'That child... she's special and I doubt anyone even bothered to find her value. No matter, as long as she lives, my plans will not fail.'_

**A/N:** And here I am, another chapter finished as sent out to you. My opinion of this chapter? Better than the last one as well as the longest chapter in this fic so far. I seem to love shadowy scenes at the end, don't I? I wonder who these two are...

Before anyone points it out, I know that Danzō can only use that jutsu once a day, roughly. The war hawk will explain how he used it "three times in one day" later on.

I can write up to a bit after the reunion chapter, since I have that all planned out and none of the extra mini-arcs come before it.

One other thing: where did everyone go? All my favorite fics are seemingly abandoned! Did that M rating scare make them jump ship? I know I almost did, but I couldn't leave everyone hanging, that and all the other sites are absolute crap or I can't connect to them. I'm feeling uninspired because I'm all alone here! BTW, reviews are on page 30!

Final note: TOBI IS REALLY OBITO?! Those guys who wrote KakashiXObito (as Tobi) fanfics were right! Let's hope the SasuNaru fic writers are wrong!

**Omake/Preview~**

**The second sky. (For preview purposes only)**

_'It...can't be,'_ Sakura thought as she stared at the tall, robed man. His hood was up and obscuring his face in shadow, but that didn't cut the fear from seeing those crimson clouds in blackness which hid a man she knew of and feared.

"You-You're dead!" Kakashi shouted.

"Did you really thing I'd die that easily?" the man asked.

Kakashi went through the seals. "No, but this time will be different. Team Kakashi, we need to finish this monster off, once and for all!"

"Hai!" the four called out as they went through their seals/motions for their own strongest techniques.

Naruto and Sakura readied themselves, Sakura ready to direct chakra at the moment she punched the ground and Naruto got a clone ready so he could form a rasengan.

Sai finished the drawing of twenty lions, releasing them to restrain the target if he tried to move.

Yamato's Earth Flow Spears burst from the ground, surrounding the man and preventing his escape on all fronts except one: the front.

"This time, you die for the last time! **Raikiri!**" Kakashi declared as he ran forward, his signature raiton glowing in his hand.

The red eyed man grinned. Just as Kakashi was in range, black serpents with red markings and eyes burst from his body, the deadly fangs of the beasts aimed for the ninja attacking him. As expected, Kakashi stopped and backed off. "Oh? Spoiling my fun now, are we?" he asked as the spears fell apart, turning into mud as he touched them.

"He really is still alive," Sai muttered bitterly.

The man smiled, showing off his fangs as his serpents wound around his body. "That's right, I'm the snake that will poison Konoha's roots to death with its poisonous bite."

**Kazeneko Yue Creation story-**

Mary Sue?

Yue has often been accused of being a Mary Sue and, as I've recently learned, she does posses many traits of a Mary Sue, but she isn't the only one. I will list the main traits Yue matches and, if Naruto fits into that category as well, there will be a glaring **_(N)_** at the end of the section. To let you know, I am not going to be bothering to mention other people who fall into these categories since it seems like the manga is loaded with characters bearing Mary Sue traits already. Instead, you can see the traits and attach them to other characters in the series. After this section will be the normal creation story as well as reviewer responses. BTW, this is written out as I go through the tropes and such on a website.

_Personality-_

Yue's cheerful personality, as has been pointed, was a sham. She was extremely depressed most of the time over her past and normally acted happy to hide herself from it. It doesn't help when the villagers constantly reminded her of something she wouldn't let herself forget. _**(N)**_

She led her former teammates a few times, but lost her ability to lead due to fear of killing one of them. Because to this, any time she suggested something to Kakashi during their missions, it was mostly disregarded since her voice clearly conveyed her fear of impending failure. While the genin, aside from Sasuke, held her words in high opinion, they paled in comparison to Kakashi's most of the time.

Yue hated her demonic blood and viewed it as a curse rather than a blessing. Even though most of her talents and gifts are related to being a hanyō, she would have traded them all away just to be human for the rest of her life, even if she couldn't realize her dreams. Her dislike of her demonic blood was so high that she only used the 'automatic' abilities of her blood, such as her physical abilities and senses, the abilities she couldn't ever stop using even if she wanted to. She was completely inept in the use of her yōki, limiting her skill set purely to ninja arts and sword fighting.

_Skills-_

Yue was highly talented, but she was a member of a clan as well as half demon. Those with demon blood tend to have heightened physical abilities when compared to regular people. I don't think I need to point out how a clan member is superior to normal people. Yue's little restraining bolt, or what kept her power in check, was her small size. She was far too small and light to use her strength and speed to their full potential. Her ears were sensitive to sounds, but that is a double edged sword when it comes to an opponent who wields sound or has abilities that produce noises that bother regular humans. Her tail raised her balance to beyond human limits, but she couldn't always protect it.

Yue's learning speed was accelerated, but this section will be incomplete for now to prevent spoilers. _**(N)**_

Yue didn't have a love rival for Ino, rather, Yue WAS the love rival to the uninterested Sasuke. Ino is head over heels for Sasuke, as is the female half of Konoha, and Yue wanted Ino to see she had options elsewhere. Funny thing is that Yue didn't consider herself one of those alternate options, but wished she was. _**(N)**_

_Physical appearance-_

Yue looked like an 11 or 12 year old girl with scruffy, shoulder length hair and dressed like a major tomboy. Only Orochimaru would like that look because he's a pedophile. Then again, he seems to be almost as gay as Sasuke, so he might find Yue repulsive because she was a female.

Yue's eye colors were unusual and were capable of changing pupil shape as well as color. This is explained by her parentage and being a hybrid, but will be even further explained in Part II. _**(N)**_

Yue's single streak of silver hair isn't really impossible, since I did base it off a friend who was a silver streak in his hair from a scar. Other than that, her hair was the fairly common hair color we call black. It was originally going to be gray, but I wanted the silver to stand out more and I wanted to show that she was related to the Uchiha without making her a brooding ass.

Yue ate large amounts of food that should have her look like Choji, but her body burned calories due to her regenerative abilities. She was also a (slowly) growing teen, so that was normal. _**(N)**_

The Slave Seal as well as Yue's neck scar are considered disfiguring. Nothing about a slash wound across the neck or a pair of crimson scar-like seals on her face, neck and part of her chest could be called anything other than ugly looking. This also doesn't take into account another, unseen scar on her body.

_Relationships-_

To begin with, this one part is mentioned not because it is related to Yue, but completely to Naruto. As seen in canon, Sasuke is pretty much the center of Sakura's world at first, but Naruto starts to edge his way in there around the Wave mission. Too funny how, after Sasuke's tried to kill her at least twice, Naruto at least three times, and openly wants to see Sakura and everything she cares about burn, Sakura still wants Sasuke. She must be as stupid as some other story heroines I know of but can't name, either that or she gets off on being treated like worthless garbage. (that won't happen in this fic)

Yue, Naruto and Sasuke are all related to each other through blood, though it is very distant. The Uzumaki are an offshoot of the Senju, who are a brother clan to the Uchiha. The Ruuko are bastards born from a Uchiha and a Senju who eloped, which explains them having traits from both clans. As a result, all three are skilled ninjutsu users. Of course, Sasuke is considered more talented due to him being reckless, seeing no harm in having a destructive jutsu a few inches from his body. Naruto is, like all Uzumaki, skilled with fūinjutsu even though his formal training in the art is low, if there is any at all. Yue was skilled in both ninjutsu and taijutsu, which was a trait of her Uchiha blood.

Have to mention this one since it is used for Sakura in all SakuSasu fics that take place in the canon story, post war. (or at least the few I was tricked into reading) Sakura will, somehow, manage make the deranged, power hungry and revenge obsessed Sasuke drop all that just to be with her. But to do this, Sasuke's personality is often thrown into a blender, ground into oblivion and replaced with a mopey, love sick version of his old personality that seems to have been derived from Edward of Twilight (non-)fame. Basically, Sasuke becomes an OC with the same name, skills and looks of Uchiha Sasuke, S-Rank criminal out to destroy Konoha and everything that gets in his way or annoys him, which is everything other than himself.

_Story Elements-_

Yue was an experienced ninja who had to deal with death due to her skill set, the council's manipulation as well as Anko's teachings. She had been trained to deal with the darkness she lived in and at the age of 12 and a half, was a jōnin who took on a few missions that involved killing. While this is crazy, do remember that Naruto has characters who graduated the academy when their age was counted in single digits and became hardened shinobi before their hormones even started to kicked in. Heck, Zabuza wasn't even trained and he slaughtered dozens of trained academy students as if it was nothing. And I believe Sasori was five when he left the academy.

I've hit sympathetic Sue and I have to laugh a bit. This one fits Naruto, Sasuke and Yue to a T. Sasuke witnessed the death of his parents and saw all the corpses of his clan, only becomes a moody jerk at first, but steadily degenerates into the monster he is today. Naruto has, at the very least, been ostracized by about 90% of Konoha and rarely to never shows it. Yue experienced a variant of Naruto's life, since there was no law to protect her from Konoha's residents or their hatred, but never showed it as anything more than a dislike of small, enclosed spaces.

These next two, reforming an entire population as well as a heroic sacrifice both relate to Naruto. His father even wanted the people to see Naruto as a hero because he contained Kurama, which backfired in every way possible and led to Naruto being treated like he was the beast itself. Naruto, by saving the entire village from Pain, suddenly goes from the most hated to most beloved person in Konoha while Sasuke takes his place as the most disliked person from the village.

As I pointed out early, Yue is only half human, the other half being a nekomata demon. Now, unless you are looking at the MGE (Monster Girls Encyclopedia) or you have a strange fetish I don't want to know about, nekomata are pretty damn far from beautiful. The Nibi actually takes on the form of a flaming nekomata and it doesn't look attractive at all. Also pointed out earlier, she hated her demonic blood in spite of it making her strong as well as being one of her primary sources of power.

Sadly, Yue is part cat and only her eyes, ears and tail show this. (while I'm here, her pupils are similar to those of characters from Venus Versus Virus) She also classified as a cute (sort of) monster girl. Her fangs could be used to ID her as a partial animal, but she had those even with her demonic powers completely sealed away. Then again, I can't even count how many anime/manga characters I've seen with a hint of fang visible when they cheered, called out to people or were in the middle of some kind of tsundere induced sadistic expression of their 'love' for the main character. Most little sister (or loli body typed), devious and sporty female characters now seem to have them.

_Name-_

Kazeneko, from the fact that she was a cat demon hanyō and, originally, was going to be a lightning and wind user. Yue is actually a Chinese GUY'S name, but her having it will be explained in detail from Part II. It isn't unique or related to the moon for good reasons.

(While on that subject, Naruto's name is just way out there. We all know that 'Naruto' could mean fish cake, which is a possible ingredient to ramen. His last name, Uzumaki, deals with spirals or whirlpools, which is funny since many seals use a whirl design, the Uzumaki originally came from the Whirlpool village, the rasengan is a whirling hurricane, the sharingan spins, etc.)

Yue's name is a combination of Chinese and Japanese, but this will be explained later on too. Also, despite the setting supposedly being in a Japan-like place, most of the characters seem to lean more towards being of American descent rather than Asian. While on the subject of nationality, Yue is a Chinese American.

Yue's true name will be revealed later on. While a True Name, or Mana, isn't in Naruto, it is common amongst demons and half demons since knowing their real name gives a person total control over them. It also serves a purpose later on.

_Author investment in character-_

I currently have two planned stories that involve Yue. One is 'Konoha's Two Demons,' which you are reading as well as the sequel. They contain the original concept of Yue, but stripped of things that would make her into a God-Mode Sue. One of these traits have been placed into the 'Necessary Darkness' version of Yue, but her other abilities have suffered for it, a classic symptom of mage syndrome, which is being an inept fighter with amazing ranged powers.

_**Now returning to the normal creation story**_

**Title-**

The title of this story is no longer black and white. With the alterations I've made to the storyline I had planned out, it has multiple meanings now.

**End of Part I-**

This one has never changed. Yue gets killed by Sasuke, which has almost always been planed. Due to them not being friends, more like mortal enemies, this wouldn't awaken his Mangekyō Sharingan.

Naruto and Sakura were always meant to take the news of Yue's death badly, both of them throwing themselves into their chosen paths and missing the chance to see each other before Naruto left on his trip. This would also help Sakura realize how far gone Sasuke was as well as making her open to the possibility of her and Naruto being closer later on. Of course, I need a few more events and pieces to hammer that fact that Sasuke isn't right for her through that thick, wide forehead of hers.

Kakashi was also set to take the news badly because HE was the one who taught Sasuke the Chidori and HE was the one who failed to see the signs of Sasuke becoming increasingly erratic. This was so he would be closer to Naruto and Sakura, also more wary to Sasuke and his actions.

Ino, originally, telepathically ordered Yue to retrieve Sasuke through the slave seal, but I scrapped that and made it so Yue had to directly hear the order for the seal to trigger. Ino would also suffer from guilt, blaming herself for Yue's death to some degree. Ino's inability to use Shintenshin no jutsu is new, a thing I decided to throw in since the Shintenshin grants complete control over the victim's body, just like an order would to a slave seal victim. Instead, she'll use that jutsu that disrupts a person's movements, the one her father uses during the Sand/Sound Invasion.

**Genin team and Early years-**

Yue's genin team has never been changed aside from Yue and Anko's relationship. The only difference is that, originally, Yue originally was supposed to have had a crush on Anko at one point. That was scrapped and the two acted more like a pair of crazy sisters instead. Lina was always the librarian type, always neat and clean cut, and would later find a love for tools that produced cuts. Jin was designed as the 'average' clan member, being only slightly better than a normal academy student and, unlike his clan mates, has no access to the Byakugan. His crush on Yue was also set to a level similar to Sakura's crush from Sasuke, but was based on real feelings like Naruto's love for Sakura. The awakening of his byakugan is an almost direct ripoff of Obito's sharingan awakening, both activating to save someone important to them. Their fates are similar as well, but as you read, Yue is directly responsible for Jin's death.

In a sense, Team 2 is a reflection of Team 7 and Team Minato, with Yue taking Kakashi/Sasuke/Orochimaru's place, Jin being Obito/Naruto/Jiraiya and Lina being a version of Sakura/Rin/Tsunade. This will all make sense later on, just wait for it.

Yue's early years have changed very little as well. She was able to speak when I first started forming her younger self, but she had very bad pronunciation and meowed a lot. I stripped her younger self of all speaking ability (transferring it to Necessary Darkness due to cuteness overload) and made her barely human at all. Her living conditions were always the same and, if one paid attention, her demon half's mental image wears the same dress she wore when she was a child.

Her training as a shinobi has never changed at all. Yue skipped all the mandatory kunoichi classes, finding them to be great times to sneak off and sleep. Actually, she just felt she didn't think it was possible for her to fall in love until after she left the academy and fell for Ino. And, as seen before, she had next to no espionage abilities so other lessons cultures and mannerisms would be completely wasted on her. Her ninjutsu tutoring took the place of these useless lessons later on.

Yue mentioned, soon after Team 7's Bell Test, that her first love seemed 'too dangerous to pursue,' (or it will when I post the revised chapter later on) that danger was Yamanaka Inoichi, the fan favorite for the most doting father of all time. That and Ino was too young to start any relationship with. Add to it that, hidden beneath her seemingly confident persona, Yue was extremely scared of rejection and actually feared love because she doesn't understand it. The weakness brought on by love is what scared her the most. If anyone paid attention, the only time Yue faltered and became nervous was during Part I when she confessed to Ino. She actually ran away in fear after that little kiss, hiding behind the need for Sakura to further her training.

**Unusual powers/skills-**

From the start, Yue was made with powers not seen before in the canon Narutoverse. She isn't entirely human, so she would naturally have powers a human wouldn't have.

One of the most notable skills she possesses is the ability to befriend cats regardless of where she goes. The cats even allow her to use them as messengers. To put it simply, Yue can read the body language of cats to a point where it is like they are speaking to her. To date, the only cat she cannot befriend is Tora, or Mr. Kibbles as I named him in this fic. Yue has a pet tiger in the Forest of Death that she named Fuzzy.

**Responses-**

**SuperNeos2:** First thing, it isn't the guy from the preview. No, the overly Youthful one is (shudders) a little odd.

**Kidloco:** I decided to make her cute and defiant, which works out quite well for her.

**Thedarkpokemaster:** Yue's lesson to Naruto in this chapter, she's a living embodiment of it. She's always being slighted by everyone around her because she is different. As for the Aktasuki members, I've decided on a total of three non-canon Akatsuki members, one replacing Orochimaru and the other two replacing unknown Akatsuki members.

**Rocketshipping fan:** Sasuke's ego is big, but who is the Doctors? Ah whatever, he's going to get smashed up a bit by a character who appears later on.

**Super Saiyan Haruno Sakura:** To answer an earlier review, Sakura will have access to a creature type that fits her quite well in every regard, but won't gain any more non-canon strength than that. As for Sakura's papa, he's the ultimate scary dad! Even Inoichi can't produce as much fear as Sakura's dad.

**NaruSaku fan 100:** Well, we didn't get the full story yet. Do remember that we don't know how or why Yue's parents died. There is still more story to this arc, but it won't be revealed until much later on.

As for Sasuke, he'll live in this fic. He'll become the guy no girl wants anything to do with, along with other punishments.

**Sakura fan 55:** You'll have to wait until later to see if you're right.

**DarkLordK:** Most people don't back story their OCs, seemingly allowing them to just appear from nowhere. My little koneko-chan isn't like that. Her back story isn't finished yet. We have a few more viewpoints to see her past from, one of which will make everyone laugh so hard it will hurt. Let's just say it involves an expectant father, a man who wants to be a father and too much alcohol.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Light and Dark 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

_[Two years after Naruto left Konoha]_

Three robed figures stepped out of a thick fog that crawled along the bridge to the Land of Waves.

"Target's inside. Only our target, doctors and guards are to be killed. No civilian casualties," the tallest stated as they hefted a steel spear. The doctors were almost as shady as their primary target, every single last one of them unlicensed and accused of selling drugs, abusing drugs or performing illegal surgeries.

The second drew six kunai, holding them between their fingers like claws.

The third and shortest had a tantō in hand and said nothing as they entered the village, making their way to the new hospital. The fog followed them for a while, then swept into the town to provide cover for them.

Inside the hospital, a young man in a business suit watched as the tool of his would-be executioners covered the area. "Is it Kiri?" he asked. That village loved fog and mist.

The huge, white haired man shook his head. "No. Kiri would be more subtle, these people are show-offs."

"You speak as if you have experience, Mizuki," the business man said.

Mizuki grinned. "I had my run ins with Kiri-nin before. These guys, whoever they are, want your men panicking before they arive, Gato-san."

The man scowled. "Gato-san was my father, I'm Gato Yuji. Remember that."

A few minutes later, a man threw the doors wide open, panicking. "Yuji-san! Someone broke into the building!"

"Inform the guards, I'm sure they can handle it," Yuji dismissed the man with a wave.

"They've already turned three floors into morgues!" the guard shouted as he closed, locked and bolted the doors.

Yuji and Mizuki turned to face the man. "That's...That's not possible!" Mizuki shouted. That killing speed and ruthlessness, who would assemble that team type again, especially after all the Kage officially banned the creation of them!

"What is it? Tell me now!" Yuji shouted. He had attempts taken on his life before, but this group of assassins was going through his men far faster than any before them. Plain and simple, he was scared. Could they be jōnin level rogue ninja? That would explain why there were no hunter-nin nearby.

Mizuki felt his bravado fade slightly. Whoever was attacking had some serious training, but not enough to take him down now that he was more powerful than a normal shinobi.

Crash!

The doors were flung open again, revealing three robed figures. The tallest one had a spear in their gloved hands, the other two carried short blades. All their weapons were bloody from the killings that had occurred. All their faces were obscured by jet black masks.

"Nothing I can't handle," Mizuki boasted as he stood between the young crime lord and the attacking ninja.

The three hooded shinobi seemed to be holding a hushed conversation, but nobody could hear them. Chances were, they all had radios or their masks were able to absorb sound from their mouths.

"Stop trying to think of a way to defeat me. I've transcended to a _**realm you can't hope to achieve!**_" Mizuki growled as he transformed into a man-tiger hybrid.

The taller two put their weapons away while the shortest stepped back.

"_**What? Think you can destroy the perfection Orochimaru bestowed upon me without weapons?"**_ he asked as he stomped towards them, then pounced at them, **_"I'll rip you three apart!"_**

The fog passed as quietly as it rolled in. For a day, nobody approached the hospital due to the high fees they were charged. When a man broke his thumb from hammering in a nail, they had no choice but to go. What they found led to an investigation, which found that Mizuki had been 'treated' at the hospital, resulting in freakish alterations and madness, driving him to slaughter everyone inside and then kill himself by jumping out the window with Gato Yuji.

Wave eventually cleaned the hospital up, got doctors, fair doctors, to get it running.

No evidence of the three hooded figures was ever found.

_[Two and a half years after Naruto left, Konoha]_

"I'm finally back!" Naruto boomed, the training trip having done nothing about his loud outbursts. It was then that he saw a familiar face added to the monument. "They really did put her up there..."

"Welcome back, Naruto."

Naruto looked to the source, seeing his ever lazy looking sensei, Hatake Kakashi. "Kakashi-sensei! Still reading in public?" he asked as he hopped down.

"Still as loud and unpredictable as ever?" Kakashi asked as he put his book away.

Naruto grinned at his sensei. "Yep, and you're going to love that part of me today!" He pulled out a book and held it out to Kakashi.

To the open pervert, it was as if the book shone with a heavenly glow. "The newest Icha Icha! I've heard it was coming out, but how?" he asked who he now believed to be the messiah of Icha Icha.

"Ero-sennin gave it to me, but I got bored while reading it. You might like it though," Naruto said.

_'Stupid brat. You aren't old enough to fathom the awesomeness of my writing. Give it a year or two and you'll be kicking yourself over this... I signed that first edition too,'_ the temporarily forgotten Sannin thought as he pouted.

A few moments later, Naruto was ahead of the two men, going on about ramen. Jiraiya turned slightly so Naruto couldn't hear him. "I brought Naruto back home, he's your student again. Don't go screwing up," he whispered.

Kakashi nodded, wanting to sink into the still glowing book in his hand. "I won't make that mistake again. I don't make the same mistake three times in a row."

"Normally, one mistake is too much for us shinobi," Jiraiya said.

"True," Kakashi said, then waited a moment before starting up again, "what's going on? I thought it was at least a three year trip."

"Akatsuki's on the move, gathering up Jinchūriki. I brought Naruto back when they snatched up another who was randomly wandering about. That and Orochimaru seems to be stirring as well," Jiraiya reported.

"Hmm. I guess we need to be on g-" Kakashi started.

"Sa-Sakura-chan?" Naruto blurted out.

The pink haired girl turned to see her teammate. "Naruto? Is that you?"

A few moments later, in a nice empty intersection, Naruto and Sakura were a short distance from each other. The two sannin and the silver haired shinobi stood off to the side.

"So... Um, did I get any prettier? Do you think I'm a woman now?" Sakura asked, a slight blush on her face. Sakura wore a vest that mimicked her old dress, shorts, a skirt, boots and elbow braces. She had let her hair grow a bit more than Tsunade had suggested, making her pink hair spill onto her shoulders a bit and curl about in a rough, but cute way.

Naruto had a huge grin on his face. "Nope! Same old Sakura-chan."

Tsunade sighed, Kakashi face palmed and Jiraiya muttered, "stupid brat," while Sakura raged a bit.

"What? What did I say?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya leaned in an whispered in Naruto's ear. "When a girl asks if she's pretty, if she's fat or if her hair looks good, lie through your teeth and say she's pretty, her hair looks great or she's not fat at all, even if the lie costs you your teeth!"

"Hey! I always told Sakura-chan she was the most beautiful woman in the world! Why's she mad then?" Naruto asked. Maybe it was one of those woman things Jiraiya tried to teach him over the years.

Sakura felt happy, angry at herself, embarrassed and stupid all at once. She'd been so focused on Sasuke that she completely ignored what Naruto said to her, mostly just chalking it off as ego boosting compliments, idiot ramblings or date requests that she routinely rejected. Kami, what a horrible girl she had been. How did Naruto ever start crushing on her in the first place? Moreover, why did he still like her?

"Nii-chan~" a seductive voice purred.

All of them turned to the source of the call, seeing a nude brunette standing there. Jiraiya started panting like a dog while Sakura and Tsunade wanted to hit their respective perverts. Kakashi had broken out his book a few moments earlier and was too absorbed in reading to notice anything that didn't involve his name, a hostile presence or Guy.

The girl vanished in a puff of smoke, revealing a less bratty looking Konohamaru. "How was that? Sure hit kill, eh?"

"Konohamaru, you really shouldn't bother with such a jutsu anymore," Naruto said with a serious face.

Sakura let a happy smile cross her face. _'Naruto's finally gotten mature. He's probably learned a lot of jutsu since he's been travelling around with Jiraiya-sama for almost three years now.'_

"Behold! The fruits of my training with a Sannin!" Naruto shouted as he focused his chakra, pulling at the wind. He was going to use Kaze no Yaiba, the Sword of Wind. A quick swipe at the ground, enough to leave a mark, would be perfect as an example.

Naruto forgot that he wasn't incredibly skilled yet.

The wind formed, then burst due to Naruto's sloppy use of chakra and excitement. The resulting gust was quite strong, strong enough to blow up Sakura's skirt as well as make a few nearby women cry out as they held their kimono shut or their skirts down. Even Tsunade blushed as she quickly shut her slightly opened shirt, though Jiraiya made sure to remember the sight, also making a note to thank the brat later for the view.

Sakura glared at Naruto while emitting massive amounts of KI.

"Eh-er- I-I didn't-" Naruto started, trying to not commemorate their reunion with a beating.

"PERVERTS!" Sakura and Tsunade roared as they straight punched the perverts responsible, Naruto and Jiraiya respectfully.

Boom! Boom!

Naruto and Jiraiya lay in small craters, realizing the women they cared for were borderline monsters. Kakashi sweat dropped, seeing that Tsunade had made Sakura into 'Tsunade Nigō.' Everyone present made a note to never, EVER tick the two women off.

The sannin and genin pried themselves out of the ground, groaning slightly in pain from doing so.

"Let's stop with this before you two wind up in intensive care. Kakashi!" Tsunade called.

Kakashi closed the book. "Alright, time for business." He stood before the two teens, trying to look dependable and lazy all at once. He somehow pulled it off. "Team 7 is no more, from now on, we're Team Kakashi. I'm no longer your sensei, but your teammate and equal. Of course, I want to see how equal we are," and with that, Kakashi pulled out a familiar pair of bells.

_[Training Ground 3]_

Naruto and Sakura were looking around, seeing their past selves running about. Kakashi himself walked over to a specific target, seeing the numerous wounds in it.

"This brings back some good memories. Sasuke challenged Naruto and Yue to an accuracy competition while Sakura practiced some genjutsu. Naruto lasted eight rounds, then Sasuke won after twenty rounds. Yue got so pissed off that she put Sasuke into a sleeper hold after hopping on his back. Remember th-" Kakashi had turned and stopped when he was almost physically assaulted by the wave of intense depression that emanated from his students/teammates. Right then and there, Kakashi knew the 'Sasuke subject' was taboo until he returned. As for Yue, they might start talking about the deceased hanyō after Sasuke came back.

Sakura wondered why Sasuke had killed Yue. He hadn't killed Naruto, though that was probably due to exhaustion. Perhaps Yue had almost managed to bring Sasuke back, so he had no choice but to kill her. Did he really hate the village and all the people in it so much that he'd kill to not be brought back? Sakura's future was starting to look a little bleak... But wait, maybe he's changed and would be more willing to listen now.

Naruto wished that he hadn't passed out after the battle with Sasuke, or had at least woken up when Yue was tightening the belt around his shoulder so the separated bone would heal better. If he had been awake, he'd have been able to stop her. Then again, now that Naruto thought about it, maybe he wouldn't have been able to stop her. Yue had her own mission and that was killing Orochimaru no matter if she needed to die to do so. Figures, he lost two precious friends because he wasn't able to convince them that their path was wrong. Were all people who chose revenge like that, did they all blindly move forward without any care for their own lives or the lives of those they'd leave behind? Naruto would never, ever wind up like that. Well, him and Yue never had a lot of people to leave behind in the first place, but there were still some.

"Alright, let's get started," Kakashi stated as he put his book away. Well, it was really a shadow clone that Kakashi had made while Naruto and Sakura were in deep thought. Naruto, hastiness being one of his innate traits, would probably jump at the opportunity to get the first strike. Of course, he was under the two, waiting for the right moment to test their awareness.

Naruto's smile was gone in a flash and he chucked some shuriken at the clone, who ducked under them and threw his own. Naruto jumped over them, then curse his luck when he saw a few headed towards his now airborne body. He summoned a shadow clone and had it pull him out of the way. The clone transformed into a Fūma Shuriken and Naruto jumped forward, trying to use the weapon as a sword.

Kakashi caught Naruto's wrist. "You were doing good, right up until that last part. It would have been more effective to throw the clone and have it attack from behind," the jōnin lectured, then went wide eyed when he felt a point on the back of his neck.

"No need for that, I'm right here," Naruto stated as he lightly poked his sensei with one of the shuriken the man had thrown himself, right at C3 and C4. He wasn't going to kill his sensei, just return the favor for their first test.

"Hahahaha! You got me good," the clone said when he remembered putting Naruto's own weapon to his neck. It was a complete turn around, sort of. "Nnn, let's start for real," the clone said, then burst into smoke.

Under the ground, Kakashi smirked as he went over the memories of his little bout with Naruto. Now to see what Sakura lea-

BOOM! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

Kakashi was suddenly engulfed in a mini earthquake, the general area now filled with temporarily floating debris.

_'Ts-Ts-Ts-Tsunade-sama?! Why'd you teach her to that extent?! I was only kidding when I thought she was your double!'_ Kakashi mentally panicked. A lesser ninja would be vacating bowels and bladder right now.

Sakura smiled like a predator that just found not-so-willing prey. "Got you."

_'Not if I can help it!'_ Kakashi thought as he shot out of the ground, getting away from the destroyed area.

"What's the matter sensei? Why not read some of your book?" Sakura asked as she balled up her fists, the leather gloves creaking from strain.

"Uh, I much prefer breathing," Kakashi said, then felt something odd.

"**Fūton: Daitoppa!"** Naruto shouted as the massive gust of wind almost caught Kakashi and forced him over to Sakura. The jōnin saved himself by dropping into the training grounds' rubble and moving away using an earth release.

_'I'm going to die if I don't take control!'_ Kakashi thought as he emerged a small distance away and created a shadow clone to help him out. "Now, time to show them how I survived as an ANBU."

_[A few hours later]_

The two younger ninja were tired and lightly injured. They didn't think it was skill that saved them from some of their sensei's jutsu, but plain old luck. He was probably holding back too.

"He's too good. We know a lot of people who are good at things like tracking or tactics, but Kakashi-sensei seems to be good at everything!" Naruto complained.

"Yeah..." Sakura said, then turned to Naruto, "you learned wind ninjutsu while you were gone. I'm impressed."

Naruto blushed and smiled. "Hehehe. Ero-sannin isn't too good at wind release, so we had to stop in with a lot of wind users for me. I still learned a lot from him, but wind jutsu evens any battle."

Sakura sighed. "Too bad it can't stop sensei from seeing us. Seriously, that sharingan is a pain."

Naruto thought about it, then a light went off in his head. "I got an idea, Sakura-chan!"

_[Fifteen minutes later]_

Kakashi was about to go after them, since he was just about finished his little break, when the two shinobi came to him. "Oh, a frontal attack. Haven't seen one of these in a while," he mused with a light smile.

Sakura swung her fist down, leveling the general area. Kakashi jumped into the air, but stared dumbly at Naruto as the boy finished his hand seals.

"**Fūton: Daitoppa!"**

"**Fūton: Kaze Kajō!"**

Kakashi looked back in time to see a few air bullets strike him in the back, pushing him towards all the small bits of debris that Sakura had loosened and Naruto's great breakthrough turned into dangerous projectiles. His arms shot up and shielded him from most of the rocks, but he still got scratched up quite a bit. The impacts stopped and Kakashi got his eyes open just in time to dodge Sakura's straight punch.

"Pinning me between two wind jutsu, sharp rocks and Sakura's knuckles, a truly amazing and terrifying strategy," Kakashi half praised, "though it probably would have been better to have used those attacks as a diversion to steal the bells."

Pat.

Kakashi's eyes widened as his hand encountered his clothes and no bells. He looked down, saw no bells, then looked at Sakura, who was holding them. "Hmm, looks like I need to prevent you from handing one over now," Kakashi said, then dashed at the girl.

BOOM!

Kakashi stumbled, falling onto his face as he literally full out ran onto shaking, fracturing ground. He watched as Sakura tossed one of the bells to Naruto.

"We win this round, sensei," Sakura said as she and Naruto jingled the bells.

Kakashi sighed, rolled onto his back and stared at the sky for a few moments. "Hey, did you two bring your sleeping bags?"

"Yes...?" the two answered.

"Hmm, get them out and we'll rest here, for old time's sake," he said as he made a clone to go fetch his stuff.

That night, all of them dreamt of memories that were heavily attached to the old training ground.

_[Next day]_

Team Kakashi was walking down the road, Naruto and Kakashi talking about who was stronger. Naturally, Naruto figured he was more powerful now. Also naturally, Kakashi figured his new jutsu as well as him still being fairly young meant he was still stronger and could continue to improve.

Growl...

Naruto's stomach gave its own vote: 'I don't care right now, my hunger is the strongest ever and will own anyone, jōnin, sannin and kage included! BRING ON THE RAMEN!'

"We haven't eaten since yesterday, so how about we get something?" Sakura suggested.

Naruto grinned. "Great idea. Ichiraku Ramen, here I come!"

"I just remembered! I have important papers to file, I was also chosen to assist in team placement, and I left the stove on. Good day," and with those blatant lies said, the man was gone so quickly he would have made Lee jealous, then start up some insane exercise routine.

_'Coward!'_ the two teens thought.

Naruto had another bright idea. "Sakura-chan! How about you and me go and get some ramen?" He meant as friends. After the events of the Forest of Death, as well as a few years to think, even Naruto could see that Sakura was completely set on Sasuke and, quite frankly, Naruto wouldn't do anything to change it, just so long as she was happy. If the Teme made her unhappy, Naruto would 'talk' to him.

Sakura had been tempted to shoot Naruto down in mid request, but Yue's words had a strong hold on her, even to this day. As genin, Sakura had never bothered to try and learn about Naruto's combat style or anything, which resulted in them being as synchronized as Kakashi's internal clock VS the real time. The whole plan for them to get the bells had been explained to her, step by step. Had she been a better teammate, he'd have only needed to tell her what jutsu he was going to use and she'd know her part in the plan. She would be a good teammate from now on.

"Sure," Sakura chimed, then grinned devilishly, "but you're paying for it." She kept her giggle hidden at Naruto's expression as he stared at his little frog wallet. It was then that she saw Shikamaru and Temari walking up to them. "Temari-san! Shikamaru! Guess who this is?" she called while pointing to Naruto.

Shikamaru recognized his friend, smiled and raised his hand.

"Hey Naruto, how are my lessons helping you?" Temari asked.

Instantly, Shikamaru and Sakura were listening as intently as possible. Lessons? What kind of lessons? Since Jiraiya was most likely involved...

Naruto smiled. "Great! I went to town on someone, using what you taught me of course."

Sakura's anger level was rising and Shikamaru was trying to find some way of not reading into the conversation wrong, but his mind kept telling him that Temari and Naruto were a lot closer than he thought. It'd be great if that were true, this troublesome woman was in Konoha too much for his liking, bothering him, making him work harder. If her and Naruto got hitched, at least she'd be bugging her boyfriend. That and blonds were annoying. Hmm, maybe he should try to trick Naruto and Ino into a date or something too. She could use it and she had been pretty glum these last few years, which Naruto could fix since he had the natural ability to spread his happiness like a disease. With a huge amount of luck, Naruto would take BOTH annoying women.

Temari sighed. "Honestly though, that stamina of yours is a joke. I normally passed out long before you got tired, so it was pretty hard on me."

"Sorry, sorry," Naruto apologized as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"ALRIGHT! WHAT ARE YOU TWO TALKING ABOUT?!" Sakura boomed, so angry that Inner Sakura was visible.

"F-Fūton techniques!" the two yelped.

Sakura cracked her knuckles, her anger making her stupid. "I see. Futon techniques, eh?"

Shikamaru used his shadow to bind Sakura. "Listen to me, they are talking about wind ninjutsu!" he shouted.

Hearing that, Sakura remembered that Naruto used wind release and Temari was very skilled with said jutsu. She blushed, her mind still picturing Naruto and Temari practicing 'futon techniques,' but she calmed down enough that Shikamaru felt it was safe to release her. She was happy Naruto hadn't been checked up on yet, since she'd most likely have to do it (or read/hear about it later) and that would only solidify the naughty images in her head.

The Nara heir sighed. "So Naruto, how long have you been home? Just get back?"

Naruto shook his head. "I got back yesterday, but sensei wanted to see how much stronger me and Sakura-chan were, so we spent a lot of yesterday shortening his lifespan."

"So you're stronger now. How about your brains, they any better?" Shikamaru asked.

Sakura pushed Naruto aside. "He's still the same old idiot."

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto whined, wishing she wouldn't rain on his parade. Here he wanted to look cool in front of his friends...

Shikamaru moved a little closer to Naruto. "So, finally get a date with Sakura?" he asked.

Naruto blushed as he shook his head.. "Not a chance at all. How's your date with Shikamaru going, Temari-san?" Sakura asked.

"Me and this lazy chūnin? Thankfully, this is all business," Temari stated.

"I hate to admit it, but I got chosen to be an examiner in the upcoming chūnin exams. Temari is here to help coordinate things involving Suna," said lazy chūnin explained.

Naruto pouted, wishing he could tease the two. He didn't want to wind up tied by shadows and swept into the air on a tornado, he'd done the latter a few times and it was all fun and games until the tornado vanished and you started to fall.

"So you signing up?" Shikamaru asked.

Naruto frowned. "Signing up? For what?"

"The exams. Don't tell me you weren't told?" Shikamaru was stunned! Sakura was so proud of her achievements, but said nothing to Naruto?

"What wasn't I told?" Naruto asked, not liking this at all. He felt like he was about to take a shot to his pride.

"Everyone in our graduating year, other than you, is a chūnin," Shikamaru said. He didn't mention that Sasuke was still a genin as well.

"What? Even Sakura-chan?!" Naruto yelped, feeling his pride, as expected, receive a steel toed kick to the groin as the young woman he loved nodded to him with a happy smile. _'I know I swore I'd do anything to make her happy, even if I wasn't happy, but why did Kami have to give her happiness in a way that hurt?'_

"Rank doesn't mean much, I'm stronger than any genin in history! Like I said before, I'll even go from genin to Hokage if I have to!" Naruto declared, "hey! How's Gaara doing? Lots of paperwork for the Kazekage?"

"He's doing good," Temari said with a light smile.

_[Suna, same time]_

The entire village was stunned. The battle had been incredible, but it ended oddly. The attacker, some blond calling himself a member of 'Akatsuki,' one who used clay dolls that exploded, had tried to use a a very large doll to destroy the village, and it would have too, had it not been for the doll being thrown far away by some very large, silvery arrows. Gaara had been relieved, his sand shield still rising to defend the village in case the attacker made a new doll, but it proved to be a distraction so some bomb dolls could get within Gaara's defenses and explode, though they proved ineffective. After Gaara's sand went crazy, the bomber had his clay bird capture the falling Kazekage and leave.

Kankuro went after the man on his own while it was decided that someone would follow him and another would send word to Konoha. What bothered Baki was the arrows that had hit the doll. They had been at least nine feet long and had to have been traveling at a very high rate of speed to knock the heavy doll so far away.

The question was: who fired those arrows and were they a friend, or a foe?

_[Konoha]_

Naruto had been happy. Even though Sakura had run into a friend and was reminded of a lunch meeting at the hospital, he had run into Iruka and the two had a nice meal. Naruto had been so pumped up for his mission that waiting for Kakashi had been easy.

It was his sensei's dull face that put a damper on things.

"You could at least act excited," Naruto grumbled, "my last mission was over two years ago, so show some emotion!"

"Naruto, you're expecting far too much of him. The only thing that gets him 'fired up' is his perverted books," Sakura stated.

Kakashi felt himself fall down, and violently bash his head off, a few rungs of the two young ninja's ladders of approval. He felt what little pride he had from developing his new jutsu vanish like it was a piece of paper in an inferno. He looked up, wondering if something would happen to restore his dignity, when he saw a bird going for the message center at a very high rate of speed. "Let's go, maybe we'll get something good today," Kakashi suggested.

_[Mission Office]_

Naruto was giving Tsunade a 'you have got to be kidding me' look.

"Well, your response?" Tsunade asked, knowing Naruto wanted to say something rude.

Naruto thought about a good way to butter up what he wanted to say, but there was just no way. "All of those missions are rejected because they suck," he deadpanned.

Tsunade's desk violently creaked as everyone, other than the two blondes, in the room felt a year slip off their lifespans.

"Naruto, you're never going to be Hokage if you don't mature a bit," Iruka half lectured, half warned. It was true, Tsunade would kill him if he kept this up. Never, EVER tick the woman off when she had lots of paperwork and Shizune had banned and taken all her alcohol away.

Sakura decided to choke Naruto out so she didn't see a repeat performance of the last idiot civilian who mouthed off to Tsunade. The poor woman was still traumatized a year and a half after the fact. Even Sakura had nightmares of that time on occasion.

"Third...better," Naruto gasped.

"What?!" Tsunade raged as she shot up out of her chair.

"Tsunade-sama! Bad news!" a woman shouted as she came into the room.

"What now?" Tsunade groaned.

"We just got an urgent message from Suna! A man wearing a black cloak with red clouds on it attacked and kidnapped the Kazekage!" the woman rapid fire shouted.

_'Akatsuki!'_ Naruto thought in shock. Jiraiya had said they were going to start publicly moving soon, but this was too fast!

Tsunade quickly wrote out the details to the mission that had shown itself and handed it over to the only available team. "I trust that this one doesn't suck, right?"

"It's great," Naruto said, wanting to help his friend and find out more about Akatsuki. No matter how much he asked about them, the only info he ever got was that it consisted of some of the strongest missing-nin, two of them being Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame. That and they all wore the same cloaks: black, high collared with red clouds on them.

"Then get moving," Tsunade ordered.

_[Three days later, just outside of Suna]_

Sakura was still quite stunned. After she learned of Yue's death, she had vowed to become a much better teammate to Naruto, but it turns out she was still a clueless little girl. The Kyūbi no Yoko, the demon that had attacked Konoha sixteen years ago and resulted in the Yondaime Hokage's death, was sealed within Naruto, just like Gaara and his Shukaku.

Sakura had thought that Naruto was hated for being an orphan of unknown parentage, but Tenten was also an orphan and the village pretty much loved her. She had briefly thought it was his pranks, but those started long after parents shooed their children away from Naruto. In the end, she thought it was a bunch of little things that made the villagers dislike Naruto. She had been wrong, so very wrong.

The villagers didn't dislike Naruto, they flat out hated every fiber of his being. She knew that shinobi and civilian alike knew about sealing, mostly since shinobi dealt with it all the time and private documents and items that civilians didn't want seen were often sealed by shinobi until they were delivered, so the village should know that Naruto was just a container for the beast, mainly since nobody could seal a person/creature and permanently alter its form, personality and power. Or at least she didn't know of any jutsu that could do that. Now that Sakura's eyes were opened a bit more to the truth of her teammate, she suspected that someone had convinced the people of the village that Naruto was actually the Kyūbi no Yoko rather than its prison.

In reality, this revelation just allowed her to understand Naruto and his goals a little better. Nothing would sway her from her current goal in life: protecting both Naruto and Sasuke. She'd already lost one teammate, she would not lose two more and be alone in this world. To her, Team Kakashi had become an extension of her family, one that understood her very well. To lose them would be almost as devastating as losing her parents. Sakura had seen how Yue was, having killed her own teammate to stop his rampage and lost the other to misunderstanding. Sakura always felt that the little neko ninja was sad, missing what she lost. The pink haired girl didn't want to follow her two mentors that closely, she wanted a happier future with her whole team.

Team Kakashi plus Temari arrived at Suna's main gate and was led inside to where the temporary leadership of the village was, which also happened to be where their most badly injured and dying shinobi was resting.

Upon entering the room, Temari went to her little brother's side and chastised Kankuro for being stupid, though her eyes told everyone she was worried for him.

Sakura was going to go over and check on him, but she was shocked when this tiny old woman jumped at Kakashi while shouting about some 'White Fang.' Luckily, Naruto blocked her dual strike with a clone's help while Naruto flinched in shock.

"Move aside! I must avenge my son and kill the White Fang!" the old woman shouted.

An equally aged man stepped up and halted his sister with an arm. "Look closely sister, this isn't the White Fang, but his son, I believe."

The woman stared at Kakashi hard, then started laughing. "I was just pretending! I haven't lost it yet!"

Everyone present knew she was just trying to make herself not look stupid, by acting stupid. How was that supposed to work anyway?

Sakura went over to Kankuro and started examining him. It was obviously poison, so she determined where the bulk of it was and used medical ninjutsu to funnel it to one area, then extracted it through a small incision she made. "That's most of the poison, but I'll need to make an antidote to completely remove it," Sakura stated as she put some of the poison into a vial for study, "is there a greenhouse or an herb garden that I could use?"

The old woman stared at Sakura. "You're like Konoha's slug woman..."

Sakura smiled. "She's my master."

_[Outside Suna]_

Three figures stopped, all of them staying well out of the watchers' visual range. The leader of them, a red eyed ninja with waist length, disheveled black hair narrowed his eyes at the 'hidden' village.

The red eyed ninja turned to his allies. "We know what our job is all about, so let's get going."

The two hooded figures nodded, the light not reflecting off their pitch black masks. The started moving, following the trail of the two Akatsuki.

The ninja looked back to the sand village. "He's there...the Kyūbi Jinchūriki..." Red eyes and black hair vanished from view as a black robe was worn and a solid black mask covered the face. The shrouded ninja picked up his unusual weapon and joined the others.

_[Konoha]_

Tsunade was taking a nap, having a bit of free time. Her dreams were far from pleasant.

Naruto was there, shadowy figures wearing Akatsuki cloaks, ten of them, started walking towards him, their hands held out to capture him.

"Leave him alone!" Tsunade shouted as she tried to run forward, but seemed to get nowhere at all.

As each member of Akatsuki drew closer to Naruto, many of them vanished. Tsunade breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that something similar would happen and Naruto would be safe, but something ice cold gripped her heart and made her look once more.

A shadow had made it to Naruto, this one was all black, but some features could be made out. Long black hair and Sharingan that glowed with inhuman evil. As Tsunade watched in horror, incredible power swept over her as a titanic white shadow rose from the unknown Uchiha, the shadow reaching down, closing its hand around Naruto, crushing him, killing him.

Tsunade shot forward, catching herself on her desk as she breathed hard. She looked down, seeing the newspaper. She quickly looked to the numbers on her ticket and the paper, seeing both were the same. She reached to her cup, touching it as she felt a slight bit of give. She glanced at it, seeing that it had cracked.

"That nightmare and all this, it can't be good. Shizune!" the woman shouted, hoping the dream and all these signs were false.

_[A little while later]_

"If you would just wait a bit, we'll send some skilled shinobi with you," Baki offered.

"I'm going," Temari announced, wanting to fight to bring her brother back.

"Stay here and help keep our defenses strong, Temari," Chiyo, the old woman, stated from atop a building, "from the sand village, I alone will go."

"Chiyo-baa-sama!" Temari shouted, wanting to go herself.

"Please leave this to the shinobi I called. We need you to remain here," Baki said.

Chiyo hopped off the building. "I'm not that old. Besides, my grandson needs a good spanking," she said as she landed.

_[A cave]_

Sasori and Deidara arrived at their target destination, seeing three shadows arrive soon after them. As the stone rose to grant the two Akatsuki passage, Sasori faced the three shrouded shinobi. "You three are to guard those three points you were told about. Maybe, if you live, I'll use you again later," he said with a sneer. He hated bounty hunters and ninja of fortune, but they were usable as disposable meat shields on occasion.

One of them shifted their gaze slightly, glowing sharingan becoming visible through the mask's eye holes as they glared at him. "Watch it, puppet user. Your little toys are nothing more than kindling to me," the Uchiha warned.

Deidara scoffed. "Master Sasori, let's leave the artistically challenged and finish our mission."

As they left, the Uchiha kept a steady glare on their backs. "I hope you die a painful death," the Uchiha growled and turned, ordering the others to move into position as he created a clone to guard the fourth point.

_[A while later]_

Team Kakashi and Chiyo came to a halt as they ran into an Uchiha, who barred their way.

"Who...is that?" Sakura asked, feeling ice bite into her soul as she stared into those red eyes.

"Itachi!" Naruto snapped.

_'That's Itachi!'_ Sakura thought in shock. She never imagined he would have sharingan and such a large amount of chakra. She could feel it washing over her, directed by the man's eyes.

"Itachi, killer of his own kin, ne?" Chiyo asked.

Itachi nodded to the woman slightly, then looked to the men of the group. "Kakashi-san, Naruto-kun," he greeted.

"Not just Sasuke, but Gaara too! I'll kick your ass!" Naruto shouted.

"Whatever you do, don't look into his eyes!" Kakashi warned, "look at his body and legs to try and predict his attack patterns. If you even catch a glimpse of his eyes, you'll have already lost!"

Sakura realized how hard it was to fight an Uchiha as she stared at Itachi's body, his head out of her visual range.

"I haven't fought a sharingan in a long while. There are tactics we Suna ninja use when facing an Uchiha," Chiyo said.

"Like what?" Naruto asked.

"One on one, be sure to flee. Two on one, take the rear," she said.

Naruto stared at her, his usual confused expression on his face.

Kakashi sighed, already knowing the trick. "Since we outnumber him, the others will strike if he catches one of us in genjutsu. Or they can disrupt the genjutsu," he stated.

Naruto caught on. "The sharingan isn't like the byakugan, it only has a normal visual range, meaning the back is open to attack!"

"But Itachi has gone beyond the regular Sharingan. He's achieved the Mangekyō Sharingan, which means these tactics may be useless," Kakashi said in a bleak manner, "there is no breaking free of the genjutsu those eyes bring on, not unless you also possess the same eyes or he lets you go."

"As expected of one who bore the brunt of my Tsukuyomi once," Itachi praised, "too bad there are only two other people in this world who possess Mangekyō Sharingan, and you aren't one of them."

Kakashi's frown didn't reach his eyes or show due to his mask. As far as he knew, only he and Itachi possessed Mangekyō Sharingan, but Itachi claimed that, aside from himself and Kakashi, who hadn't revealed his yet, there were two others who possessed Mangekyō Sharingan. If that was true, it was most troubling.

"Of course, using that jutsu eats at your eyes like a ravenous wolf. Tell me, Itachi, how is your sight?" Kakashi asked as he uncovered his sharingan.

Itachi realized what was going on. "So...that makes three... How did you get yours, Kakashi?"

Naruto stepped up, but Kakashi held his shoulder to stop him. "As much as I'd love to urge you to charge him, I'd rather you cover me," the silver haired man admitted.

"Naruto-kun, spare everyone the heartache and come with me," Itachi stated as he held out his hand.

Kakashi shot forward, his fist aimed at Itachi's chest. As expected, the Uchiha blocked the strike. "You'll have to kill me first," Kakashi said.

It was then that he saw Itachi's shadow clone, luckily, Naruto managed to hit it with his rasengan. When the chakra cloud vanished, Naruto saw his teammates were down. "Dammit!" Naruto snapped, just as Kakashi got up and became Itachi as the two women changed as well. The two closest ones were quickly dispatched, each taking a kunai to the heart. The third one also took the kunai, but burst into a large flock of ravens. "G-Genjutsu? But how, I never looked at his eyes!" Naruto shouted.

"I don't need my eyes to trap a foe, a finger is more than enough," Itachi said as he reformed from crows. The man saw Naruto's face, saw that the boy was still avoiding his eyes. "Don't worry, as I am now, I cannot use the Mangekyō Sharingan that you all fear." He put his hands in a ram seal. "Time to sleep, Naruto-kun."

Naruto remembered how Jiraiya had taught him about disrupting genjutsu and tried it, spiking his chakra flow so Itachi couldn't control it.

"You're strong for someone so young," Itachi praised, "but..."

The genjutsu remained in effect.

"Weak as a Jinchūriki," Itachi finished. He made one of his ravens change into a shuriken and scratch Naruto's cheek, using that cut and the infused chakra to bring all Naruto's doubts and regrets to the surface. But the genjutsu was broken soon after, not that it lasted all that long.

"Are you okay, Naruto?" Kakashi asked, landing near Naruto. It seemed that Kakashi attacking Itachi and being blocked was real, or maybe it was just a seamless transition. When Naruto didn't respond, Kakashi knew what had happened. "It seems that his eyes aren't the only thing we shouldn't look at," Kakashi guessed.

Naruto snapped back to reality completely. "He claimed that he couldn't use Mangekyō Sharingan!" he shouted.

Kakashi knew that Itachi's eyesight was failing, but not using the eyes at all had been bothering him a bit. They had been deadlocked long enough for Itachi to briefly use Tsukuyomi, but he didn't. Something was off...

"Let's finish this quickly," Kakashi half ordered.

The fight erupted, Itachi trying to kill Kakashi with a far larger blast of flame than Sasuke was ever capable of. Of course, Kakashi had his own way of thwarting this jutsu, which was tunneling through ground and trying to sneak a direct blow to the jaw. Itachi leaned back, swinging his fist up to Kakashi's jaw instead. Kakashi caught the blow and flung Itachi's fist back, then he was forced to catch another punch aimed at his face.

_'This is too strange...'_ Kakashi thought as he struggled to keep Itachi locked up. He knew that Itachi was particularly skilled with fire release, but that fireball had been very weak. Using Mangekyō Sharingan didn't weaken the user aside from large chakra drain and steadily weakening eye sight. This whole fight felt wrong.

Itachi locked eyes with the man and caught him in a genjutsu, turning the jōnin into paper and burning him alive.

"So that's how it is. Genjutsu doesn't affect kage bunshin..." Itachi stated.

"Take him out!" Kakashi ordered from a hole in the ground as Naruto ran up to the clone and Akatsuki member.

"**Ōdama Rasengan!"** Naruto shouted as he and his clone slammed the new rasengan into the Uchiha, destroying a large amount of the area in addition to the man who murdered his entire extended family.

Sakura and Chiyo were shocked. Sakura had thought that she was capable of more damage than Naruto, but this was something that would take four or even five punches to do, and that wasn't counting Itachi. She thanked Kami he was even tempered and had a crush on her, since she had been such a bitch when they were younger that Naruto could kill her as revenge, quite easily too.

Like Kakashi before him, Naruto felt something was just plain wrong about this fight. Itachi smiled in spite of his massive injuries, then fell to the ground.

"Wha-what the hell is this?" Naruto asked as he looked down on the man he had just killed.

"This a jutsu or something?" Sakura wondered, feeling strange about everything now. It was just eerie.

"This man..." Chiyo muttered.

"You know him?" Kakashi asked.

The old woman nodded. "He's Yūra, an influential jōnin from Suna."

"A spy for Akatsuki?" Sakura wondered aloud.

"So he used a henge to be Itachi," Naruto guessed.

"No," Kakashi stated, "he used sharingan abilities and even Gōkakyū. His fighting level was close to what Itachi had before he left the village."

Everyone knew that this was just a stall tactic Akatsuki had set up, and a very good one at that.

"They must be extracting the Shukaku. Perhaps they plan on making jinchūriki that are wholly loyal to them," Chiyo guessed.

"Jinchūriki?" Sakura asked.

"To use the Bijū as weapons, there had to be a way to control them," Chiyo stated.

"But what is a Jinchūriki?" Sakura asked.

"You met Gaara and you still don't know?" Chiyo said.

Sakura was stunned. "You mean that..."

Chiyo nodded. "The demons were sealed within human beings, like Gaara, who are now called Jinchūriki. This was how the Bijū were made into military power."

Sakura felt disgusted. "So they've been used for war?"

"Of course," Chiyo said.

"How do you remove a Bijū?" Sakura asked, figuring she could ease Naruto's pain, make his life easier if she could just get that damn monster out of him.

"Using fūinjutsu that has enough chakra to match up with the beast you are trying to extract may disrupt the seal. It would take a lot of time, and as for the Jinchūriki..." Chiyo stopped, partially knowing what the girl was thinking. It would release Gaara from pain and the threat of Akatsuki, just not the way she intended. That and the beast was far more dangerous when unsealed.

Sakura caught on. "You mean they die?!"

"The two who housed Shukaku before Gaara died when the beast was removed. I doubt this is unique to Shukaku," Chiyo said as Sakura began to cry.

"You cry too easily, Sakura-chan," Naruto said," don't worry, we'll get to Gaara before they finish."

"Baka! It's not Gaara I'm worried about!" Sakura shouted.

Naruto quickly turned away. "We need to hurry."

_[Near the cave]_

Bzt! "A team from Konoha has arrived," a soft, female voice stated through the Uchiha's radio.

"I can feel them. Describe one of them," the Uchiha said after flicking the call button on his radio.

Bzt! "The eldest of them is a man with black hair, thick eyebrows and a green outfit," a rougher female said.

The Uchiha sighed. "That would be Might Guy. If you encounter him, I'd suggest abandoning your site, since his taijutsu would crush anyone besides me." That was when a spike of darker chakra hit them, though the Uchiha was the only one who didn't shiver and feel mildly ill.

"What was that?" the rough girl asked.

The Uchiha clicked the radio so it produced static, their little way of telling each other to shut up and listen. "Remember to use the coding calls on the radios. And what you are feeling is the Kyūbi Jinchūriki, releasing some of his strength."

Bzt! "Are you kidding me? That's some of the beast's power? It exceeds your power, boss." the rough girl snapped.

Bzt!

The line remained dead for a moment, then.

"Do you think you can force it back with your Sharingan, Master?" the softer toned girl asked.

The Uchiha remained silent for a while, then held the call button to produce static. "Maybe..."

**A/N~**

First chapter of Part II. Not as easy as writing Part I, which I know almost off by heart now. I've entered foreign territory, so I must step lightly. Actually, I've got most of part II worked out, at least the extra parts as well as the new path the story takes, I just need to do placement now. I'll be affecting all known teams from Konoha as well as Akatsuki due to their three new members, one of which appeared in the Omake from chapter 25. After looking over my added content plan, I'm actually going to have to read everything up to what I call the full break point (where I wave bye to canon) around the time Madara drops meteors on the battlefield. I can write to a point after Team Kakashi meets up with Sasuke, but I'll need to read more to continue.

I'll also be adding more time (after Naruto learned the rasengan) later on after I post revised chapters. I want to add events from the Snow Country and Demon Country to the story, to make room for a later event. To let you know, there will now be at least a month or so of space between the Sound/Sand invasion and the search for Tsunade.

As for why I've been gone, I feel kind of uninspired. All the harem writers are gone now (unless its Sasuke getting them) and I've been reading Lanille, FLight and FLanille fics lately because NaruSaku and NaruIno fics are drying up, being replaced with great floods of SasuSaku and other pairings I can't stand. I seem to be the only harem writer left on FF and it has been bugging m. Naruto the Gilgamesh, inspiration for 'The Greatest' and aspects of this fic itself, is dead despite how amazing it was, and all the others are dead in the writer. What we need is a tag filter system, similar to 's filter, that way we can unclick 'yaoi' when searching for harems, since many NaruXGuy harems are listed as 'Naruto only' stories, which also happens with some of the harems I want to find.

Oh, and there will be a new summary for this fic after the chapter containing Sasuke and Team Kakashi meet up since I can be more descriptive with more space.

**Jutsu Index-**

**Fūton: Kaze Kajō** [Wind Release: Air Bullets] – Don't blame me for this one. Narutopedia didn't have the Japanese equivalent to the English name and I wasn't willing to go wading around for it, so I just translated it myself. When I do see it in the manga, or someone kindly tells me what it is called in the manga/anime, I will post an updated chapter with the proper name.

**Responses-**

**DarkLordK:** I seem to be bringing about lots of tears lately...

As to the OC problem, yeah I noticed that. I once read a story where an OC went from wet behind the ears genin to defeating a force that would probably great enough to make Madara cancel Edo Tensei due to his fear of the boy, even though we all know Madara is "immortal" and strong enough to take down five kage with ease at the moment. 

My OCs for this fic are powerful, since three are S-rank missing-nin, three are roughly high B-rank missing-nin (the shrouded team) and the final one is a low A-rank threat (not seen yet) which means none of my OC are overly powerful. Sure, one of them has some (seemingly) OP jutsu, but I did make drawbacks for them as well.

Actually, all of the Akatsuki members are quite OP, but it is situational power, not omnipotent power. In the end though, none are as powerful as Naruto.

**thedarkpokemaster:** More tears... Well, Jin's death was supposed to make people feel sad. He was a great guy, sort of like Naruto, so seeing him go would really effect some people. He was, more of less, the ghost that haunted Yue, sort of like Rin and Obito to Kakashi. Difference: Yue is directly responsible for Jin's death while Kakashi is only responsible for Rin's death.

**Rocketshipping fan:** Ya could have just said Doctor Who rather than 'the doctor,' would have saved you some typing. And if I were you, I'd save the sympathy for later. Let's just say that you haven't seen a fragment of the Hell she's gone through yet.

**Super Saiyan Haruno Sakura:** I threw that in since Yue never said it was Ino that had her heart going, not Sakura. As for continuing the joke... read on!

**NaruSaku fan 100: **Yue was based off how cat's sometimes act, meaning she is prone to sometimes going completely ballistic/insane for a few moments, then stop and look around like she didn't have a clue what she was doing. Rather than physical randomness, it mostly occurred in Yue's brain, though she'd still go spastic sometimes when trying out new moves, which led to Guy calling her 'Youthful.'

**NaruSaku fan 55:** As I wrote before, you will find out later on.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Burning Sun - Dark Sun

**Disclaimer: I own nothing other than OCs, custom arcs and any jutsu I create.**

Might Guy stared down his opponent, wondering what to do. It was like fighting a mirror, a mirror with a mind. His foe didn't know his moves, not until he saw them. That didn't mean Guy was getting hit by his own attacks, just that they were avoided with ease.

Guy was fighting an Uchiha, one who he couldn't identify due to them wearing a hooded black robe with a black mask that only allowed his eyes to be seen, nothing else. Guy decided his foe was male, mainly due to the stance, body dimensions and mannerisms.

"What's the matter?" the shrouded Uchiha asked, looking incredibly bored.

Might Guy might be a ninja, but he didn't like to fight as much as some others. That was the reason why he preferred quick take downs so he could avoid dragging out his fights. His quick taijutsu was flashy, much like the jōnin himself. It also didn't help that he was still a little sore from that blue guy earlier, whoever he was.

The Uchiha was the opposite of the bowl haired ninja. The Uchiha had forced all of Team Guy into a fight with his team and he had been drawing out this fight with slow techniques and his personality was as cold as ice. Guy pinned this Uchiha as a torture expert. He had, for the most part, avoided Guy's attacks, but also prevented said jōnin from leaving. This one was roughly as fast as Guy.

"Why are you holding Tenten hostage, and how did you get her?" Guy asked. Everything had gone according to plan, right up until this shinobi showed up. According to Lee and Neji, they were fighting this guy's teammates. According to the Uchiha, his shadow clone had knocked Tenten out and said clone now had a blade pointed at her heart, waiting for someone who didn't defeat a member of the Uchiha's team to show up so it could stab her. One of the three needed to lose or Tenten would die.

"Business. My current job is to keep you and your team here," the Uchiha stated.

"There is no reason for us to fight!" Guy shouted.

The Uchiha shook his head while sighing. "There is a reason: my job. Don't try to talk your way out of this fight, though we both know how it will end. If you want to stop this battle without fighting, offer me a job and pay, then I'll consider it."

Guy knew that, chances were, he wouldn't be able to defeat this guy. From the looks of what Guy could see, this one had the Mangekyō Sharingan, meaning that more than a passing glance to the man's eyes would lay him down, just like Tenten. His footing were odd too, being somewhat difficult to read.

_'Need to find a way to get to Tenten. I know,'_ Guy thought as he remembered his radio. "Neji, Lee-kun, come in."

"What is it, Guy-sensei?" Lee asked.

"Can you make your way over to Tenten?" Guy asked.

"Sure thi-" Crackle...

"Lee-kun!" Guy shouted into the mike.

"Don't worry sensei, I won't let the spear hit me," Lee said, then a few moments later added, "I cannot evade this one, she uses the strangest of summons. I'll try to make my way to Tenten, but it might be better if Neji went to her."

"Neji! Can you make it to her?" Guy asked.

Neji didn't answer for a short while, making Guy think the worst had happened. "I'm sorry, but I can't defeat this one quickly enough. They keep summoning wolves," the Hyūga said.

Guy glared at the Uchiha. "A pair of summoners... You have some powerful allies, Uchiha."

The Uchiha sighed as pale, smokey blue light burst from the ground before him as a seven foot tall armored figure started to rise from it. Guy thought it was a normal summon, until he saw the gaping holes in the dull red armor, and no body visible through said holes, just flames. "You! You're summoning the dead to do your bidding!" Guy shouted in a rage. That was beyond unyouthful!

"They gave me the right to summon them to serve me once more in death, so I call on them when needed," the Uchiha explained, then sent the armored ghost back, "I don't need them right now, but my subordinate does."

"You mean you sent one of those knights to fight Lee-kun?" Guy asked.

The Uchiha shook his head. "No, I gave her the ability to summon five of them, a specific five that I hand chose for her. The rest, she has a method of drawing more of my men to her if need be."

Guy was stunned. Normally, it was two separate individuals who were contracted to the same summon type, but this man made it sound like he was the one and only person capable of summoning the knights, then he claims that he could requisition a set number of his dead knights to others. Guy had never heard of someone sharing a summoning contract like that.

The Uchiha shot forward, a tight left handed uppercut aimed for Guy's jaw. The jōnin caught it, then quickly switched his gaze, following the Uchiha's right arm, as it rose up and rocketed towards his face, over their locked arms in the form of a chin clipping sucker punch. Once again, Guy caught it, following the wrist with his eyes, then was shocked when the Uchiha grabbed his arm.

"I don't need my eyes to capture you," the Uchiha stated as strange pale purple flames wrapped around his right arm, his eyes closed.

Guy tried to break free, but he had tied himself up and the flames didn't let him move.

"**Bijonferu,**" the Uchiha stated as Guy suddenly felt a tremendous fear overtake him, along with a darkening of his vision. The Uchiha's eyes opened and he looked dead into Guy's, his sharingan replaced with another dōjutsu.

"Do you see?" the Uchiha calmly asked as Guy was assaulted by images that made him scream like never before.

_[With Neji]_

The Hyūga cursed his luck. He was fighting a woman, one who just happened to be summoner and medic at the same time. When she saw his speed, she put some distance between them and started summoning wolves in droves, sometimes as many as a dozen in one shot. As it stood, Neji now had to go through at least six dozen wolves to get at her. He had landed a blow or two on her, but she just healed the wounds or avoided ones that would weaken her ability to use jutsu or badly injure her.

"Stand aside, woman," Neji warned.

She shook her head, breathing a little hard. Later, Team Guy would realize that all three wore the same outfit, a uniform so to speak. "Master intrusted this position to me and I'll defend it with my all!"

Neji struck a number of wolves, finding them more annoying than dangerous. All she was doing was keeping him surrounded with her pathetic wolves, which were sent back to where ever it was she was calling them from after they were injured enough.

The woman shivered as she watched her allies get defeated. She might need to try as hard as she could in a moment or two if things didn't change.

Neji broke through the pack and struck at the woman.

"KYAA!" she screamed as Neji hit her stomach. A mark on her collarbone started flashing, then a very large, silver furred wolf was summoned behind her.

Neji jumped back, just as the massive jaws clicked where his head had been a moment before.

"_**Woman, you are lucky you were branded with our seal,"**_ the wolf growled as it shot a look at its summoner.

"S-sorry, Mori-sama," the woman stuttered as she crumpled in shame.

The wolf, Mori, snorted as he turned his gaze to the smaller wolves. _**"Oi you mutts! Get your acts together before I snap your tails off!"**_ Mori ordered, then barked repeatedly as the wolves started gathering in organized groups. The attacks resumed.

Now Neji was being forced backward as the wolves poured over him in waves, striking like they were military. _'This isn't good! I need to take that large wolf down!'_ he thought as he managed to break through a wave. They all came at him, all attacking from different angles.

"You're in range of my divination," Neji said as he visualized the symbol, then lay into the wolves at his top speed. **"Hakke Rokujūyon Shō!"** he shouted as he struck the final wolves, decimating all but the large one.

Mori seemed to grin in a vicious way. **_"It has been so long since I've eaten a Hyūga. But it saddens me that you're so slow."_**

Neji was a little angered by what the wolf had just said. "I'm faster than you ca-"

The wolf was gone in a blur, then Neji was forced to the ground as it pinned him down with a heavy paw on his shoulder blades. **_"Like I said, so slow. Doesn't really matter, fast food gives me indigestion."_**

_'That speed, My body can't keep up with it!'_ Neji thought as he struggled to escape the wolf and his descending fangs.

_[With Lee]_

BANG! Swish!

Once again, a knight got in the way of Lee's attack and he nearly got divided as punishment.

"Hahahaha! Boss' knights aren't so weak that they'd fall to your pitiful taijutsu!" the woman shouted as she watched the boy try to get at her. Lee had been instructed on various weapons, by Tenten, and knew that the woman held a partisan in her hand, a fairly rare spear in the Elemental Nations.

Lee, having no choice, opened the gate of pain and tried to get through the knights through speed, since the gate of opening proved futile. He zipped around the knights, none of them keeping up with his movements as he rushed at the woman.

She chuckled as she thumped her spear on the ground. Five knights armed with different weapons all rose from the ground, saw the attacker, and put themselves in the way. Lee, once again, bounced off a knight without harming the woman.

Lee panted slightly as he shut off the gates, feeling a sting in all his muscles. "How can you summon so much? A normal shinobi would be exhausted by now."

Lee would later swear the woman looked guilty for a few minutes after that question. "I'm not a normal ninja... And... And I'm not using my chakra for these guys..." she said.

"What?" Lee asked.

She looked at him, brown eyes staring into Lee's black ones. "My boss gave me a few of these knights for myself, but most of them are here because I've been using a seal that lets me summon these guys using...his chakra."

Lee had never heard of that before. The seal this woman spoke of allowed her to siphon another person's chakra to use jutsu. Whoever was on the other end of that seal had to have tremendous reserves.

"Sorry kid, but this is the end of the line for you," the woman said as she flipped her spear, the five knights that surrounded her rushing at Lee when she pointed the blade at him. The other knights slid into pits of blue light, there job done.

Lee gave a youthful battle cry as he launched himself at a knight.

_[Guy]_

Guy was released, falling to his knees. He was utterly drained, the visions he had seen drained both his mental and physical strength. It truly felt like he had been exercising all day long while studying harder than he ever had before, though a quick look at the shadows showed that only half an hour had passed.

"W-what was that power?" Guy asked. It wasn't genjutsu or even ninjutsu, it was nothing Guy had ever encountered before. His fellow jōnin, Kurenai's genjutsu were Demonic Illusions, but what Guy had just gone through was many times worse than anything she could ever imagine on her worst days. Now that he thought about it, the power the Uchiha used didn't even feel like chakra. It felt cold, dark and inhuman. No normal man could hold such a power.

The Uchiha remained silent, remembering when such things made him scared, ill even. "Hopefully, you never need to see more than what I've shown you this day, Might Guy."

Guy tried to stand, but that was the straw that broke the camel's back as he suddenly saw the world waver and he fell to his side, wheezing as his strength completely failed him.

"Don't worry, none of your team will be killed," the Uchiha assured the fainting man, "though I may have to share what you've seen with them if they refuse to stay put."

That last part triggered waking nightmares of what he had seen in the vision, though everything he held dear took the places of those strangers as harsh blackness stalked the man into unconsciousness.

_[Tenten]_

The Uchiha walked into the weapon filled clearing, glaring at the clone that had 'entertained' itself by undoing some of the weapon mistress' blouse ties as well as fiddling around with a sword. "Did I give you permission to do that?" he asked.

The clone looked up, shocked as it flipped her half open top shut. "M-Master! What are you doing here?"

The Uchiha was close now and tore the sword out of the clone's hand. "My target was rendered non-hostile fairly quickly. His stamina is inferior to my own, meaning I could overwhelm him with taijutsu quite easily, though I opted for showing him some of my own memories. Now, what were you doing?"

The clone desperately tried to find a way to save itself. "Uh, um... Ah, I was looking for a radio or tracking beacon! Remember, you ran into that huner-nin a month back who led a whole horde of them to you because he had a beacon on him!"

"Did you find anything?" the Uchiha asked as his eyes assumed a flat, soul freezing glare that scared the clone. Those hunter-nin were tough, until he had cut their fingers or hands off. One was persistent, but he eventually lost his cool, and his head.

"I found a radio, though it was a trigger type," the clone reported.

The Uchiha was now examining the sword. It was not his, so it must have been Tenten's. It was a beautiful, well kept blade with keen edges and nice balance. The handle was simple, with somewhat ornate, lion styled wing guards. "And any transmitter?"

"No-ne..." the clone stuttered, mainly due to the sword punching through its head. With a jolt of chakra, the clone was destroyed in an unusual way, with its skeleton briefly becoming visible as it was erased.

"I don't tolerate that kind of behavior," the Uchiha growled as he placed the sword next to Tenten and stood a small distance away from her after closing her shirt. If she woke up early, she'd see the same things that Guy saw, meaning she'd be unable to fight afterward. _'I will pay for this soon enough,'_ he thought as he remembered the drawback to his technique.

"Why is this taking so long? They should have killed them ages ago..." the Uchiha muttered as he sat down, feeling the chakra signatures around him, waiting for the right ones to vanish.

_[Lee]_

"You suck!" the woman said as she jabbed the spear, smashing the blunt end into Lee's chest, sending him flying back with the world swirling from the impact.

The taijutsu expert tried to get up, but he was battered from his own jutsu and this woman's knights. She had actually ordered them back a little bit ago and had dealt with Lee herself. Sadly, she seemed much stronger and faster than before, easily being able to counter the weakened Lee. She had used her spear with precision too, striking with the blunt end at all times and landing numerous good hits.

"Why didn't you kill me?" Lee asked.

The woman looked down at him, or at least he assumed she did. Her eyes were obscured by the mask and shadows at this angle. "Simple, boss said: no casualties."

Lee frowned. "Your boss said that? Why spare us, it'd be easier to kill the attackers..."

"True, but boss' words are something I'll never question and I'll always obey," the woman said as she pushed some chakra into her spear, making it compact itself to a much smaller length, "do you want to die?"

"No, I don't want to die yet," Lee said, then remained silent for a few moments, "can you say something to your 'boss' for me?" 

"What?" the woman asked.

"Two things actually. One: thanks for not killing any of us," Lee said.

The woman nodded. "Alright, what else?"

Lee smirked, feeling himself start to faint from his injuries. "Tell that boss of yours to avoid Uzumaki Naruto."

"Why's that?" the woman asked.

"Because Naruto will beat him," Lee said, then passed out from pain and exhaustion.

The woman huffed as she walked away. "Boss has nothing to worry about when it comes to a simple Jinchūriki." and she was gone, headed to the clearing where her boss and Tenten were.

_[Neji]_

"_**Child, how stupid can you be?"**_ the wolf asked, his fangs a mere inch from Neji's neck.

The medic girl was standing there, a trembling kunai held in her hands to her own summon's forehead. "Do not kill any of them," she said in a wavering voice. She was scared of her own summon.

The wolf grinned a bit. _**"Morsel, explain yourself now before I finish what should have happened two years ago."**_

The girl swallowed hard, her soft brown eyes filling with some hardness and strength. "My master ordered it," she stated, a surprising power in her soft voice, "do you want to cross him, Mori?"

Mori grit his teeth as saliva and heated breath hit the back of Neji's neck, a powerful growl vibrating in his large throat. _**"If it was anyone else, I'd eat you both, but that demon and its sharingan... I'd rather eat shards of heated metal blessed by a hundred gods,"**_ the great wolf huffed as it got off Neji's back and went over to the girl, _**"come, morsel, we need to see your master. This child is of no threat to us."**_

Neji got up, drawing some of his weapons. He didn't like using tools, but he had nothing against them being distractions or the occasional ranged kill. He threw them at the retreating medic and wolf. "Never present your back to an enemy!" he shouted as the weapons flew.

Mori turned with a sigh. _**"Stupid Hyūga. I fear no child!"**_ the great wolf barked, then unleashed a unearthly roar as the medic covered her ears and jumped behind him. The air visibly vibrated as the sound waves hit the flying blades, knocking them away and slamming into Neji, his ears ringing as he was physically lifted and thrown back a few feet, slamming into a tree.

"Mori-san! No yōki!" the girl shouted as she swung a hand at the wolf's ear, "he'll make you suffer if the Hyūga dies!"

Mori glared at the girl. _**"Come! I wish to see that master of yours!"**_ he growled as he got behind the girl and started pushing her with his head.

Neji tried to get up, but the disorientation from his ringing ears coupled with the injuries from the impact made it nearly impossible. He activated his radio, then sighed when he found it ruined. "You three better be alright," he muttered, worried about his teammate's and sensei. Despite his loss and the apparent danger of these masked ninja, Neji couldn't truly feel worried because of the medic's master. From what little he had heard, the master had a stranglehold on his teammate's wills and forbade killing without reason, meaning the chances of a member of Team Guy dying was low.

_[Tenten's clearing]_

The young woman had woken up and took up her sword, point of the blade to the bottom of the masked ninja's neck, ready to render him a paraplegic for the rest of his life.

"Where are my teammates?" Tenten demanded, letting man feel the tip of the sword.

The Uchiha tried to look over his shoulder, but Tenten saw the Mangekyō Sharingan and made the tip of the blade a constant on his neck. "So you are wary of my eyes..." he said.

"I'm not stupid, I know about the sharingan and its powers," Tenten said.

"But what of the Mangekyō Sharingan?" the Uchiha asked.

Tenten was taken by surprise by the Uchiha's words. "Mangekyō Sharingan, what's that?"

"The Sharingan is an advanced reading type dōjutsu, allowing the user to copy ninjutsu, taijutsu and genjutsu with a glance, so long as the user is sufficiently skilled. It also renders the user nigh invulnerable to regular genjutsu. Ah, I forgot to mention that jutsu granted by kekkei genkai and hiden jutsu are beyond the sharingan's reading ability. The requirement of awakening a sharingan is stress and adrenaline," the Uchiha stated.

"I know all that!" Tenten snapped, then saw the other two masked ninja enter the clearing. One being pushed by a wolf large enough to make Akamaru look small. The other ninja had five armored knights with them. "Stay back or he's dead!" Tenten shouted as she drew some blood from the Uchiha's neck with increased pressure from her sword.

"Mastering the sharingan takes time and training," the Uchiha finished as if he was not being threatened at all, "the Mangekyō Sharingan is a different story."

"Tell me. Now!" Tenten sternly ordered. The more she knew, the less of a threat this man was.

"To awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan, one must murder their best friend," the Uchiha said.

Tenten was so surprised that the sword faltered slightly. "What did you say?"

"To get the power I have, I had to murder my best friend. I'm not telling you anymore than needed," the Uchiha said.

Tenten growled and went to shove the blade through the man's neck

"Are you sure you want to kill me? I might be the only one willing to tell you about all three powers the Mangekyō Sharingan 'gifts' to their user," the Uchiha said.

"Tell me then!" Tenten snapped.

"You know enough to warn the Uzumaki. He needs to avoid the young Uchiha, lest he becomes the catalyst of another Mangekyō Sharingan," the Uchiha stated.

"What do you mean? Why would you be worried if he died?" Tenten asked, even as she hoped said event would never happen. He was a good friend, to her and her teammates, and Tenten didn't like it when friends died.

The Uchiha sighed. "It should be quite obvious. I need that boy for my plans later on. Him dying would ruin everything I've put into motion."

"You can tell me all about it when we get back to Konoha," Tenten said.

"I'm going nowhere," the Uchiha said.

Tenten smiled. "What makes you think you can escape?"

The Uchiha spun around and swung his elbow at the blade, knocking it so Tenten's arm swung wide as his right hand flashed out, pale purple flames wrapping around it as he seized her head.

"Keep your tongue inside your mouth," the Uchiha warned. When he saw she wasn't in danger of biting her own tongue off, he proceeded, "**Bijonferu."**

Tenten's screams were heard by Naruto, Kakashi and Deidara, chilling the three to the bone at the sheer terror and helplessness in each one. Deidara, for a moment, thought the girl would tear her own vocal chords to shreds from the volume of her screams.

"What do we do now, boss?" the spear wielding woman asked as she dismissed the knights while walking up to her leader.

"Master, how is your chakra?" the medic asked.

"My chakra levels are lowered, but good enough for now. As for what we do, we wait for a little while," the Uchiha said.

They all stood together for a spell, then the medic turned to the Uchiha. "Master..."

"What is it?" the Uchiha asked as he turned to his medic.

The woman looked scared. "Shouldn't we be worried about the other team from Konoha? It contains the White Fang's son, Sharingan Kakashi..."

The Uchiha sighed. "Hatake Kakashi's mastery of the sharingan pales in comparison to mine. He may have unlocked the powers of his implanted Mangekyō Sharingan, but he doesn't have the chakra to support them, meaning he can't use it often. Unlike him, I possess the chakra my eyes require." He remained silent for a few moments, then said, "Let's go."

And the three man team left, headed towards the cave as shadow clones brought all the members of Team Guy to the clearing, the giant wolf monitoring them.

_[Near the cave, a few minutes later]_

Naruto's chakra shroud started forming a second tail, making Kakashi panic slightly. He was going to move forward to place the seal tag on Naruto to suppress the chakra of the nine-tails, but three hooded figures appeared before he could move.

"So, we meet again, Kyūbi and Uzumaki..." one of them said to the shrouded Naruto.

Naruto growled as he glared at the man, seeing the Mangekyō Sharingan flickering back. He moved forward, but the man's eyes shifted form.

"Stand still," the Uchiha commanded, then Naruto's vision darkened as he fell to his hands and feet.

_[Within the Seal]_

Naruto was in front of the seal, forcibly kneeling as the fox's chakra swept out of the seal and wrapped around the boy like a cloud of poison.

"_**Those eyes and that chakra. You're...no normal Uchiha, you're more like a demon,"**_ the nine-tailed fox said as he appeared within his cage.

The Uchiha walked up to the cage and looked at the piece of paper that held it shut. It seemed... appropriate. The man did enjoy his humor at the most awkward of times.

The fox growled. _**"Those disgusting eyes and that vile chakra, leave this place at once!"**_ it commanded with all its might.

"Silence, you caged dust bunny," the Uchiha shot back.

The fox actually stared at the man, his mouth slightly open in shock. Only one man had ever showed absolutely no fear to the fox, had actually instilled fear in the fox. _**"You should be dead!"**_ he shouted.

The Uchiha turned his eyes to the fox. "Death, it's nowhere near as peaceful as many think. Then again, Hell was never meant to be peaceful... Do you want to see how it is, immortal beast?"

The fox found this man disturbing. Nobody ever went to Hell and spoke of it this way, they came back as darker versions of themselves. To also, supposedly, possess the power to impart the tortures of Hell upon others, this man was far too dangerous. _**"Why are you here, Uchiha?"**_

"You're tearing the boy apart, I can't allow that. You will retract your chakra," the Uchiha commanded.

"_**I bow to none,"**_ Kyubi stated as he reached through the opening in the cage, wanting to crush the Uchiha.

Mangekyō Sharingan locked with the Kyūbi's slitted eyes. "Release the boy, NOW!"

The fox pulled his arm and chakra back, freeing Naruto. _**"Damn...you!"**_

The Uchiha winced as his Mangekyō Sharingan both started bleeding. "Two Bijonferu, half of my chakra eaten for summons and forcing my will upon the greatest of the nine Bijū, I almost strained my worn body too much."

The fox grinned. _**"What happened to that strength you possessed before, you murdering bastard?"**_

The Uchiha stared back at the demon. "I'm holding back more than you can imagine, fox. I could take you now, but it's too soon for that."

The fox laughed at the man. _**"Could it be that your little 'vacation' weakened you? So far you have **__**fallen, Uchiha."**_

"I tire of this. I've already pushed you back into your cage, pathetic pet fox kit, so I'll take my leave," the Uchiha stated as his image shattered like glass as he left the seal. The fox roared in anger and smashed into the bars of his cage, wanting to kill that bastard once and for all.

_[Outside the seal]_

Naruto panted slightly as the fox's chakra fully retracted. _'He controlled the fox!'_ The man in question slipped away, his plan back on track due to minimal effort.

Sakura and Chiyo arrived. "We're finally here," she said.

"You found us?" Kakashi asked.

"We just followed the other one's trail," Sakura said.

"Trouble?" Chiyo asked as she saw the clay clone.

"Sakura-chan, did you get the other one?" Naruto asked.

"We did, but what of Gaara?" Chiyo asked.

Naruto saw the destroyed bird, remembering that Gaara was inside its mouth. Luckily, Naruto hadn't hit the head.

_'Dammit, Master Sasori is dead. Probably because he made it obvious where his true body lay in that puppet. Time to sneak away,'_ Deidara thought as he slipped from the bushes.

"And where do you think you're going, Deidara-chan?" the Uchiha asked.

Team Kakashi was alerted to a fight as the Uchiha and his team started to attack their employer. They followed the sounds of battle.

CLANG! Two shuriken were deflected by two kunai.

"**Amaterasu!"** the Uchiha stated as a stream of high pressure blue tinted black flame struck the tree Deidara hid behind, setting it ablaze. The flames were cut off from their chakra supply, showing blood under what little was visible below his right eye.

_'They're attacking a member of Akatsuki?'_ Kakashi thought, wondering if these three truly had a death wish. _'Wait, what happened to Team Guy?'_

Deidara broke cover and tried to get higher up. "Why are you attacking me?"

"Pay us or we'll extract flesh!" the spear user shouted as one of her knights swiped its blade arms down on Deidara, missing by a decent margin.

Deidara saw his bird and ran over to it.

"He's a long range expert who uses clay to cause explosions!" Kakashi warned.

Deidara took a bite of his clay bird and smirked as the chakra started to gather. "My ultimate masterpiece... ART IS A BLAST!" he loudly declared.

"It's a suicide explosion!" the medic shouted.

Everyone scattered, two Naruto clones carrying Gaara.

The blast didn't go off. It seemed to misfire, just becoming a large burst of smoke.

"What in Hel's name happened?" the Uchiha asked.

The smoke cleared, being dragged to where Deidara had been a moment before.

"Almost didn't make it," Kakashi said as his Kamui caught the exploding youth, then he fell back from exhaustion.

"What did you do?" Sakura asked.

"I sent him and that explosion to another dimension," Kakashi explained, then turned his gaze to the rogue ninja, "what did you three do with Guy and his team?"

The Uchiha signaled with his radio, making his clones and the wolf step out with Team Guy carried by them. "They're alright, just exhausted," he said.

"Why not kill them?" Sakura asked.

"We don't kill unless we are ordered to. You never know, we may be enemies today, but we could be allies tomorrow. That art freak was a victim of a mercenary's fickle nature," the spear user said.

Kakashi noted that the medic was somewhat hiding behind the wolf as she checked over Team Guy. "What is her problem?" he asked.

"Your past with medics," the Uchiha said.

Kakashi was suddenly very worried. He had never told Sakura and Naruto much about his team, just how he gained his sharingan, nothing else.

"Suddenly waking up and groping medics when they touch your mask, you're a legend of sexual harassment," the Uchiha said.

Kakashi blushed. In a way, that was worse. It seemed that his body tried to hit their heart with a chidori, without lightning, resulting in him groping their chests. Tsunade had warned him that his hands could heal a lot slower than the rest of him when he had done it to her, where as every female medic had just slapped him. The one male medic it happened to had, disturbingly enough, blushed when Kakashi's hand hit his chest. Why couldn't he forget things he saw with the sharingan, like that event?

Sakura looked at the jōnin. "If you pass out, I'm tying you up and flipping you onto your stomach," she said with a flat tone.

"Is everyone alright?" Kakashi asked, trying to switch from the topic of his unintentional molestation of medics to the current situation.

Naruto's clones lay Gaara flat on the ground.

_[Twenty minutes later, a clearing]_

Team Guy was on there feet again, wanting to get back at the group of summoning mercenary ninja, but would have to wait since they had left a while ago, leaving clones and the wolf to carry the wounded. Said summon and clones had long since vanished.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked as the girl lay his hands on Gaara's chest.

Sakura shook her head, telling them that the Kazekage was dead.

"It's always him who suffers," Naruto muttered.

"Uzumaki Naruto, calm yourself," Chiyo stated.

"This is your fault!" Naruto shouted, "if only you didn't put that demon inside of him in the first place, none of this would have happened! Did you even care how he would feel? Did you think he would feel at all? Power of Human sacrifice? WE are the only ones who ever pay for YOUR selfish decisions!"

And now Naruto was crying for his friend.

"Naruto..." Sakura muttered. It broke her heart to see him like this.

"Two and a half years. I couldn't save Haku, couldn't stop Yue two years ago, couldn't save Gaara today, probably can't save Sasuke either. Did I really change at all?" Naruto asked.

"You have changed, more than yourself," Chiyo said as she went to Gaara's body and lay her hands on his chest, producing the light of medical ninjutsu.

Sakura recognized the intensity of light and the feel of the chakra. "That jutsu!" she shouted.

Chiyo nodded.

"What is she doing?" Naruto asked.

"She's bringing Gaara back," Sakura stated.

"She can do that?" Naruto asked.

Sakura felt pain in her chest, knowing what would happen soon. "Only she can do it."

Chiyo felt a sting as her stamina started to give out. "I... I don't think I have enough chakra."

"Use mine!" Naruto said, "uh, you can use it, right?"

Chiyo remembered everything she had learned of this boy in the short time she knew him. What she had said earlier was true. She, like many Suna ninja, saw alliances as something to exploit or see as a waste of time. This boy had changed her opinion, made her see that they weren't superficial ties, but strong bonds that would keep both villages prosperous.

"Lay your hands on mine," Chiyo lightly ordered. Naruto did as he was told, focusing chakra to assist the woman. After a few moments, Chiyo smiled. "I'm glad I met you, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Huh?" Naruto gasped.

"The way we old people made this world of shinobi, we- I was mistaken. I can finally do the right thing. Suna and Konoha are breaking free of the past," Chiyo said, "Kakashi said that your power isn't just a Jinchūriki or a ninja, but a strength that changes people. Use that power and become a Hokage who will help change the world." She looked back at Sakura. "Sakura, it is rare to meet a woman who has a chivalrous spirit that rivals most men, but don't go throwing your life away saving an old woman like me. You need to save that which is important to you. You have the potential to surpass your master."

"Chiyo..." Sakura muttered as she started crying.

"Naruto, a request from this old hag. You and Gaara know the same pain, please help him in ways I... never even...tried," Chiyo said as the jutsu was completed.

Gaara awoke, seeing his best friend standing there with a relieved look on his face, slight bags under his eyes.

"Gaara, hi," Naruto said.

"Naruto, you too?" Gaara asked, then realized that he wasn't dead when he saw many people from Suna around him.

Naruto grinned. "Everyone came here to save you, even though we went through a lot to do it."

"Tell me about. I'm never going to stop worrying about you, am I, troublesome little brother," Kankuro said with a grin. He rather liked having to worry about his brother, rather than worry about his little brother killing him.

"Gaara is the Kazekage, so he could give you garbage missions for being so cheeky," Temari said, then smirked as her somewhat sadistic side reared its head, "minions."

Naruto and Kankuro felt sorry for whoever married this woman because the man would be whipped so badly, his great grandchildren would bow when a woman called to them.

"Hey Gaara, how do you feel?" Temari asked, then winced alongside her little brother when he tried and failed to stand, "don't strain yourself, you're probably going to be behind your desk for a while."

"I thought we lost Kazekage-sama," a Suna nin bawled as he very openly cried into his sleeve.

"Idiot! Gaara-sama wouldn't die from something like this!" a girl, Matsuri, shouted as she lightly whacked the crying teen, "Gaara-sama is the strong, silent type. He's a good looking elite, so he'll never die from something like that!"

"He's cute too, and the Kazekage," another girl, Sari, praised.

WHACK! Naruto was now lower than even chopped liver.

"Next time for sure, I'll save Gaara-sama!" the two girls declared as they swarmed the Kazekage.

Naruto partially picked himself off the ground. "The gap between genin and kage has never seemed so big..."

"Get used to it man. This is how the world is, us hard working grunts are nothing compared to elites," Kankuro said, trying to console his fellow table scrap in the eyes of women.

"Shikamaru keeps saying that too, so it must be true," Naruto said.

Kankuro thought of all the changes his brother had gone through and realized that, not only was he a better person because of the teen sitting before him. "Naruto, thanks for being there for Gaara."

"Don't thank me, thank Chiyo. She's the one who healed Gaara, I just assisted Kakashi-sensei," Naruto admitted as he looked at the old woman he believed was sleeping, "sheesh, using a jutsu that strong put her right to sle-"

"No," Kankuro cut in.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"That wasn't healing, Naruto, she used a life transferring ninjutsu. Chiyo-baasama is dead," Kankuro said.

"Wait, what?" Naruto gasped. She died?

"In order to bring life to the dead, the user must take their place," Kankuro said, then sighed, "the puppet squad once tried to find a way to breath life into out puppets, Chiyo-sama led that project. She invented a jutsu that would do that, but saw that it was far too dangerous to use, so she had it labeled kinjutsu and destroyed all written knowledge of its usage."

"Gyhahaha, I'm just playing dead. I keep waiting for her to say that, but that time has passed," Ebizō said, "she seems so...peaceful, so at rest now."

Sakura nodded as she tightened her grip on the deceased woman.

"Naruto, I don't know whether to call you wonderful or amazing," Temari suddenly said.

"Huh?" Naruto gasped as his face reddened slightly.

In Konoha, Shikamaru had a very nice dream of Temari dating Naruto, leaving him to his cloud watching in peace.

"I don't mean like that," she said, realizing what she said, "you can change people. Gaara and Chiyo-baasama, both of them changed so much in so little time because of you. Before, she repeatedly said she didn't care what happened to the village, saying alliances made us weak. And she would never have done such a thing for Gaara. You changed her that much."

And then Shikamaru's dream changed into a nightmare where Temari was his wife and she bossed him around and nagged all the time.

"Chiyo placed the future of Suna and Konoha into your and Gaara's hands. A fitting end for a shinobi," Kakashi stated. If only he could leave a tenth of such a legacy behind when he died, he'd be happy.

"Just like the Sandaime," Naruto said, receiving a nod from his sensei, "I understand her feelings and wish now."

Gaara forced himself to his feet, ignoring the protests of his body and his ninja. The weight of the Shukaku had been great, but the weight of her legacy was greater, but it was something he'd bear with pride. "Everyone, a prayer for Chiyo..." he said.

_[Cave, same time]_

"Zetsu-san~ I found it~"

The strange plant man turned to the voice, seeing a man with short black hair wearing an orange mask with only a single eye hole.

"This means I can be part of Akatsuki now too, right? You know, fill the gap and all," he asked.

"There is a reserved spot and a free one," the plant man stated.

"Reserved?" the masked man asked.

The plant man half smiled. "An old friend will come back to us soon, one way or another."

"Hey! We can't just let anyone in!" the black half plant man snapped.

"Don't worry, Tobi's a good boy," the white half of the plant man argued with himself.

_[Three days later, after Chiyo's funeral]_

It was time to leave and Naruto was feeling nervous. "This is where you normally shake hands...but I'm no good at it, so..."

Gaara held his hand out for Naruto.

Naruto was worried he'd mess up, but reached out to Gaara and shook hands with him.

_[A few hours later]_

"The old men are holding us up," Tenten complained.

"Sorry Guy. The sharingan always does this to me when I overuse it," Kakashi apologized.

"YOSHA!" Guy cried out.

"Wait, what are you doing?!" Kakashi yelped.

And now Guy was giving Kakashi a very unwilling piggyback ride.

_'No way!'_ Tenten thought as a wave of revulsion flowed through her.

_'Creepy,'_ Naruto thought.

_'They're closer than I thought,'_ were Sakura's thoughts on the matter.

Neji realized he had underestimated his sensei. He COULD sink lower.

_'TRAINING!'_ Lee thought.

"HAHAHA! Try to keep up with us now!" Guy shouted as he took off for his home, Kakashi wishing he'd fall off, he'd heal faster or someone would kill him before they got to Konoha.

_'That level of intimacy between two men is too strong and so wrong,'_ Sakura thought.

"Neji!" Lee called out as he prepared himself to carry his own rival.

"NEVER!" the Hyūga shouted as he started to run away from Lee.

_'And there's the next generation of weird,'_ Sakura, Tenten and Naruto thought as they looked at Lee.

**A/N~**

Here I am, again. I didn't get a chance to fully beta this, so it may have errors somewhere. I'll look over this later and re-post if I find any. By the way, chapter 29 & 30 will be awesome, so stick around and hope things go well.

If I can, I'll try to release the next four chapters as quickly as I can, but this fic will be halted for a while after that because I need to place new events and I can do that while focusing on Kyūbi's Kit, which I can just alter as I go.

I'm not too sure if I've pointed this out before, but isn't Sasuke extremely weak? I keep reading about him fighting strong opponents and winning, mainly due to those people being weakened somehow. Does Sasuke like picking on the sick and injured or something? Jeez, what a douche...

I'll be posting a little note next chapter that details various things I have in the 'Excele-verse, Naruto edition.' It basically has things such as how long school terms are, reasons polygamy is accepted, Hokage/council power structure, civi council powers and restrictions, etc. I'm doing this because I was accused of falling for fanon in Kyūbi's Kit.

Before I forget, I have to warn you guys that my internet connection is at risk because my nephew is a COD BO2 addict who doesn't realize that the game is a bandwidth hog (up to 1.8mb per second) and that fourteen hours a day when he doesn't have school is not moderation, it's excessive obsession and a sign you don't care about anything as long as you're enjoying yourself.

And since it came up quite often, I will say this now: **t****he masked Uchiha is NOT Tobi!** His name will be released soon.

**Jutsu Index-**

**Bijonferu** [Fell Vision] – A contact based genjutsu that the masked Uchiha uses to force people to see Hell and its victims being mutilated beyond all human reasoning. The Uchiha delivers the genjutsu through his right hand..

**Responses-**

**xXxWhiteWolfxXx:** You'll see in a while.

**Sky Zephyrus:** The development to NaruSaku is going to be hard, and painful, especially on Sakura. I can't say more, let's just say someone forces her to face the truth: her wish to save both is contradictory to reality.

**Dragonsatan:** She died for events that will occur soon and later on. Keep reading.

**The Keeper of Worlds & Bandia:** Updated.

**DarkLordK:** Actually, just one Uchiha, as you've read, and they're not Akatsuki, just 'rogue' ninja that Pain hired for stalling purposes. Difference between rogue ninja and missing-nin? Rogue ninja never had an allegiance to a ninja village in the first place, normally trained outside of the hidden villages, so they aren't traitors. Haku, in my books, is a rogue ninja.

As for how I'll balance a God-like Madara, you'll have to read, wait and find out.

**Zatheko:** I'll tell you guys now, but NaruSaku won't really start until after Pain's attack, after the hug scene we NaruSaku fans all love (which I have yet to see!), and some of us probably colored and made into a permanent wallpaper. (mine is of a creepy, deserted forest road at night)

**Sherry:** Ah, seems you read too quickly. My other fic, Kyūbi's Kit, has a yuri harem in it. This fic has a harem, but you will be happy to know that it doesn't involve Naruto or Sakura.

**Narutosuperfical:** GAH! Why do people just flash through the AN while reading a bit? Can't they just skip it, like normal? It is Naru/Saku and Yue/Ino/Secret canon female.

**Kidloco:** I don't know who told you that, but yuri will never die! (snickers) Yes, (weakened) Yue did get killed by Sasuke, but her imprint in other people's lives is strong. I'd suggest you keep reading, things are going to get interesting soon enough. (smirks)

**thedarkpokemaster:** Yes, Sakura is warming up to Naruto a slight bit. And that isn't Tobi, it's a completely different Uchiha. Think about it: permanently active mangekyō sharingan, waist length messy hair, male, controlling Bijū with sharingan, vile chakra, Mangekyō Sharingan changing into a different form. Does that familiar to you?

**Yuri-Hime-Chan:** A third Uchiha? There are three in Part II, not counting Madara. Those being Tobi, Sasuke and Itachi. As Itachi stated, he only knew of two other Uchiha who could use Mangekyō Sharingan, and we all know Sasuke doesn't have those eyes yet and Madara isn't here yet.

And no, Itachi will not be dying in this fic. I've already chosen his future wife, so of course the awesomeness that is Itachi "Chuck Norris" Uchiha will not die to his pitifully weak little brat of a brother, not that they even fight in this fic. Sasuke will be taking on Kū, the tenth member of Akatsuki in Itachi's place.

**Rocketshippingfan:** I've never watched Doctor Who, so I can't really say anything on that matter. The only reason I'm saving Sasuke in KTD is so that he can, quite literally, become someone's bitch later on!

**super saiyan Sakura Haruno:** Um, Yue died two and a half years ago, so how can she mess with Naruto's head. Well, Naruto could have dreams of asking Sakura out, but her turning him down to go out with Yue. Heh, that actually sounds funny. Future Omake?

And those three rogue ninja are sort of like mercenaries. They don't exclusively work for someone unless they get a good (read: large and constant) income. It is more like pay per mission for them at the moment.

**NaruSaku fan 100:** The masked Uchiha is **NOT** Tobi. Tobi doesn't have waist length, messy hair. Search the Uchiha to find one with that particular hairstyle as well as one who can change their Mangekyō Sharingan into a different form.

And Yue just went mad all on her own, which is funny since only indoor cats do that. Yue was, technically, an outdoor cat.

**Sakura fan 55:** I had to do something that would make him look like a pervert while showing that he did learn some wind ninjutsu. As for the 'futon techniques,' I just wanted to show that Sakura does have feelings for Naruto, they're just buried under her 'love' for Sasuke. That and I wanted to create one of those awkward conversations that people misread all the time.

**Bandia:** Glad you love it and I've updated.

**Timberwolfe:** Hmm, how to say this? Sakura is going to start having doubt forced onto her soon, though it will be through means that are sort of bash-like, seemingly hater level mistreatment of the medic. Let's just say it isn't fun for her.

**Timberwolfe:** I have some NaruSaku coming up in chapter 30, just showing Sakura has some interest in Naruto. And I wonder if this non-canon (parts of it anyway) was good...


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Team Kakashi and others

**Disclaimer: I own Naruto …...in my wildest fantasies!**

"This smells like a trap," Tsunade grumbled, "for all you know, more of Akatsuki will just be waiting at Tenchi Bridge to ambush you. Orochimaru is the perfect bait for Team Kakashi right now."

"Then we'll just defeat them again and escape," Sakura said.

"It's not that simple. Kakashi and Chiyo were the ones who defeated those Akatsuki, not you and Naruto. Chiyo is no longer with us and Kakashi will be laid up for a week, at least," Tsunade pointed out, "six days left on the clock, guess we'll have to reform Team Kakashi for now."

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune cut in.

"What is it?" Tsunade asked, not liking where this was going. It was always the same thing lately.

Shizune gathered her courage, hoping her pleas would be accepted this time. "We shouldn't send Team Kakashi. And if you insist on sending Sakura, reform the team without Naruto-kun on it."

"You and Sakura are some of the few shinobi I put all my trust in, that is why she and Team Kakashi are going," Tsunade stated.

"Then you can send my team instead!" Shizune insisted.

"Your team isn't trying to retrieve a friend, Naruto and Sakura are. To them, it isn't a mission, it's a promise," Tsunade explained.

Shizune remained silent for a few moments. "But Naruto-kun..."

"You've heard what I've had to say, what are your thoughts on the matter, Naruto?" Tsunade asked.

"I'm off to find a teammate," Naruto said from above, surprising both Shizune and Sakura, then jumped over their heads and took off.

"Always rushing off. Brat didn't even let me finish speaking," Tsunade muttered to herself in an affectionate way. "I'll try to find someone to fill in for Kakashi, make sure Naruto knows that, Sakura."

"Hai!" Sakura said.

"Tsunade, we need to speak with you," Koharu said as she walked up.

_[A few moments later, a private room]_

"What is this all about?" Tsunade asked.

"We have been spoken to on a few occasions by Shizune," Homura started as he nodded to the woman, "you should not send Uzumaki Naruto on missions that have even a remote chance of him coming into contact with Akatsuki. We also believe that he should be in a four man team composed of high ranking shinobi, preferably jōnin or ANBU, so we can guard and monitor him properly."

"He should actually not have so many missions. If possible, we should restrict his movements, keeping him within a few miles within Konoha's limits," Koharu said.

"All rejected," Tsunade stated.

"Tsunade, we know that you know Naruto is a Jinchūriki. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't leave the village at all unless we need him to," Homura said.

"I'll accept the four man team aspect of your suggestions, but none of those restrictions will not be put on Naruto," Tsunade stated, "regardless of where he is, they will come for him. With him on the move, the chances that Akatsuki will come after him will be lowered." She didn't mention that, if Naruto were to remain in Konoha, Akatsuki would probably raze Konoha to get to him.

"But-" Koharu tried.

"Naruto's special ability with others will eventually become one of Konoha's greatest assets, not the power of the fox," Tsunade finished.

Homura stared dead at the woman. "You need to remain firm on matters and not keep changing your stance," he chastised.

"I also don't want him in harm's way!" Tsunade shouted.

"Can you guarantee that Akatsuki won't take Naruto? If they manage to get the Kyūbi, they will pose more than a significant threat to Konoha!" Homura shot back.

"They won't take him," Tsunade stated.

"And if you're wrong?" Koharu asked.

"If Konoha and the Land of Fire is put in danger because of my decisions, then I will save it, even if it costs me my life," Tsunade swore.

"If you're that willing on this matter, then we will relent, but we do have some... minor details to ensure Naruto's safety on this mission," Homura said.

"Such as?" Tsunade asked.

"There is another who will be more able to explain," Homura said.

"Danzō, you may enter now!" Koharu called.

"Danzō? That means you want a Ne ANBU on the team," Tsunade said as she turned to watch the man hobble in.

"Tsunade-hime," the bandaged man greeted.

"Actually, I also got someone to assist us, to be my personal agent," Homura said.

"What?" Tsunade asked as she faced the man. Even Koharu was surprised.

Danzō looked at the man, a frown on his face. "I assure you that my agent will be enough, I'll even pass his reports on to you."

"While I do trust you, I'd rather have...another set of eyes on the field, ones that answer solely to me," Homura said.

"Where are these 'eyes' of yours?" Tsunade asked.

Homura adjusted his glasses. "I'm not entirely sure, but Team Kakashi will meet up with them later on."

_[Elsewhere]_

_'Who is that?'_ Naruto thought as he walked past a youth who was almost fully covered up. Creepy...

The teen pushed himself off the tree. "Naruto, it has been a while..."

Naruto looked back. "Uh, who are you?"

"...It is me," the teen said.

"Who?" Naruto asked again.

"We may have not seen each other for a few years, but that is no reason to forget an ally's face. You are beginning to hurt my feelings, Naruto," the teen stated.

"That weird way of speaking! You're Shino!" Naruto shouted. Shino didn't use contractions too often and he just sounded bored almost all the time.

"Why could you not recognize my face?" Shino asked.

"What face? You're all covered up!" Naruto shouted.

"Shino! You're early!"

Naruto looked back to see Kiba...and a HUGE dog!

"Kiba!" Naruto called out.

"Hey! If it isn't Naruto!" Kiba cheered as he hopped off his dog, "I'll never forget that smell!"

"You recognized me by...scent?" Naruto asked, not believing it.

"WOOF!" the huge dog barked in greeting.

"Hey, is that who I think it is?" Naruto asked while pointing at the dog.

"Huh? Of course it's Akamaru," Kiba said, "but you, you got taller, eh?"

"Forget about me, Akamaru is huge!" Naruto said as he pointed at the dog, "are all dogs like that?"

"Akamaru's big? Hmm, I guess he is a little big," Kiba said.

"A little? He used to ride on your head! Even you think he's huge, right Shino?" Naruto asked.

"You recognized Kiba and Akamaru..." Shino said.

"What did you do to depress him so much?" Kiba asked.

The sound of sandal covered feet moving in haste reached their ears.

"Huh?" Naruto gasped as he looked back, wondering what it was.

Hinata had quickly hidden when she saw Naruto, who she recognized instantly. She was wondering how to approach him.

"Hinata! What are you doing over here? Just come say 'hi' to me!" Naruto said as he appeared less than five inches from her face.

Hinata lasted about three seconds, long enough to imagine him kissing her, then she was floored.

"Hinata! Why'd you faint?" Naruto shouted.

"What the hell? She's always passing out around Naruto!" Kiba shouted, proving that he was just as dense as Naruto.

"You recognized Hinata too..." Shino muttered.

_[A little while later]_

"They had a mission, damn. Where can I find someone who isn't going on a mission?" Naruto asked himself, then realized he knew the perfect, mission free, lazy bum.

A few moments later, Shikamaru sighed. "I already told you that I'll be tied up because of the chūnin exams, remember? Even if we are friends, I can't just ditch this like a troublesome history class." When he saw Naruto's expression, he sighed again. "I'd like to help you, but I just can't. With that Godaime breathing down my neck, it's like you taught my mom your troublesome Kage Bunshin."

"I'll help you!"

Naruto turned to see Choji standing behind him, food in hand of course.

"Shikamaru, here's the lunch your mom made for you. Don't worry, I didn't eat any," Choji said.

"Choji! You can really help me?" Naruto asked.

"Choji, you have a mission, remember?" Shikamaru asked.

"We can't ignore Naruto's request for help, he's out friend. I'll talk to Asuma-sensei about it," Choji said.

"Asuma-sensei will never agree to it, his boss is Tsunade after all," Shikamaru said.

"Wow, you never take a break when it comes to eating. You're an even bigger fatass than before!" Naruto said in a playful way. He was one of the few who could call the rotund ninja a 'fatass,' mainly because the three often poked fun at each others 'bad' points. Shikamaru was a slacker and dreamer, Naruto was an idiotic prankster and Choji was a fatass. It was all fun to them.

Or so Naruto thought.

Choji backhanded Naruto, shocking the blond. His shock was gone when Choji drove his large fist through a... a lion made of ink? Another one came down and Choji crushed it out of existence.

"There's the source," Shikamaru said as he nodded towards a pale youth sitting on a roof a good distance away, regarding them with cool, analytical eyes.

"I've never seen him, but he seems to be wearing a Konoha forehead protector," Naruto said.

"Attacking an ally while not training, that's treason and he needs to be captured to answer for his crimes," Shikamaru said, then got ready to use his jutsu, "Naruto! Go get him, I'll cover you!"

"Right!" Naruto shouted as he ran, knowing that he was the faster of the two attackers in their group.

"**Chōjū Giga,"** the youth muttered as more ink beasts leapt off his scroll and went for Naruto.

"Naruto, get down!" Shikamaru shouted. When he saw his friend was out of the way, he released his jutsu, **"Kage Nui no Jutsu."** His shadow extended and rose off the ground, becoming needles to stab the lions.

Naruto jumped up and, using his new kunai delivery device, swung his kunai at the youth, who blocked it with a tantō with no tip on the blade. "Who are you and why did you attack me?" Naruto demanded.

"You're weak, guess that means there's nothing dangling between your legs," the youth said with a smirk.

"Who are you?!" Naruto shouted.

The youth broke the lock and avoided the shadow that Shikamaru had extended towards him. "We'll meet again, Naruto-kun," he said as he prepared to vanish.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

The youth looked over, just in time to be punched back down onto the roof near Naruto.

Tap!

"Who..." Naruto half asked as he stared at the youth's attacker.

A lightly tanned young woman stood there in a one sleeved, dark green jacket with a high collar and an almost knee length, slit skirt. The jacket sleeve was connected to the jacket torso by the arm pit section of the sleeve. She wore a pair of almost knee high brown boots that each had a dagger mounted on the side. A long sword with a dull black core and a long dagger rested on her lower back. Dark red hair that reached her shoulders and bright red eyes were her main defining features, aside from the scar across half of her forehead.

The pale skinned youth frowned as he lightly glared at his attacker. "Identify yourself," he said.

"Shut it, brat. I have no interest in you, just the Uzumaki," the young woman snapped.

"Me? Who are you and what do you want with me?" Naruto asked. He seemed to be asking that a lot today.

"I'm Akane, a bounty hunter. Most call me the Shinku Kariudo," the woman, Akane, said as she lightly bowed, "as for why I'm here, I need to know if you'll interfere in my newest hunt."

Shikamaru was stunned. It couldn't be that immortal witch! There was no way Naruto was being targeted by the Crimson Huntress!

"Your latest hunt?" Naruto asked.

"Orochimaru of the Sannin" Akane stated as if she were talking about a simple mouse.

Naruto realized that this woman, indirectly, wanted to help Naruto. If Orochimaru died, it would be that much easier to bring Sasuke back! "Listen, I-"

The woman's dagger came out, pointed towards Naruto. "I don't care for your goals, just that you draw close to my target. Raise your blade, lest you wish to die."

Naruto brought his kunai up, barely in time too as her weapon flashed out and nearly hit his throat. Naruto shoved back, finding it easy as the woman backed off, avoiding Naruto's weapon. Naruto went on the attack, hoping to disarm the woman, but she deflected his attempted disarm into the roof shingles and then punished him with a kick to the face, effectively disarming him.

"Is this all you can do?" she asked.

_'Is she a ninja?'_ Naruto wondered. She didn't wear any identifying symbols, so maybe she was a missing-nin.

The youth moved forward, only for the woman to duck his blow, then she bolted forward with a quick swipe to his side. He reached to where he had been hit, encountering liquid. He quickly looked at his hand, seeing it was black. _'She struck the ink reservoir on the scroll, quite a low hit as well. She was watching me and found the weakness to my jutsu,'_ he thought, then jumped and shunshined away.

Naruto looked back to the woman, only for her to swing her blade at his face, then sheathe her dagger as Naruto stumbled back.

Naruto stood up, panting slightly. "What? I'm not so weak that you don't need a weapon!" he shouted.

Akane drew her black cored sword. "No, that color... it annoys me!" she shouted as she moved forward and swung her sword.

Naruto moved out of the way, then panicked when his jacket was cut near the shoulder. _'I was out of range!'_ he thought as the girl came around again. Naruto, once more, dodged, only for his coat to receive a new tear. "How is she doing that?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto! It's not a normal sword, it's a whip with blades!" Shikamaru shouted.

Akane swung her blade, the edge segmenting as the core, a complex series of mechanical links protected by a black shell of metal, stretched out and the blade came close to cutting Naruto's chin. "Why'd you have to give it away? I'm sure the Uzumaki could have figured it out. Eventually anyway," Akane said as the blade returned to its sword form.

"Now that I know about your sword, I won't get hit again!" Naruto declared.

Akane grinned. "You know my sword, but not my skills. Try and dodge this!" she shouted as she ran at Naruto.

Naruto jumped up and summoned a clone, throwing himself out of the extendable blade's reach.

"You're still in range!" the woman shouted as she threw one of her boot daggers at him, hitting his arm. With Naruto distracted and falling, Akane jumped at him and dragged him down to the roof, then started slashing at him with the dagger. She stopped when Naruto's arm, held up to defend himself, fell to the roof.

Choji went to go avenge his friend, but he heard something that stopped him.

"Choji, we have a mission, remember?"

The Akimichi turned to see his friend, Yamanaka Ino, dressed in her usual outfit. He didn't like the slight dullness in her eyes, but he had, regrettably, gotten used to it during the two years she bore the weight of Yue's death. She was still haunted by it to some degree, robbing her of some of that normally upbeat (bossy) personality she used to have, but she did well as long as nobody mentioned the Shintenshin or Yue. Shikamaru had taken to calling her troublesome again a month ago when she started to, as usual, boss them around.

"Ino, we don't have time for that, some weirdo was attacking Naruto, then this woman showed up and-" Choji tried to explain.

"**Shinranshin no Jutsu!"** Ino shouted as she focused on the huntress who attacked the heap that was Naruto.

Akane twitched as she felt her body move of its own volition, bringing the sword up to her own neck. "Interesting," she said, then grabbed her controlled right arm with her left and forced it away from her neck.

Ino was sweating. "It's taking so much...just for one limb," she panted. It felt weird too, like she was trying to control a rapidly dying body, which she had done once or twice before. What was this woman? No human could have such a dark spirit. It was colder than an ancient, glacial tomb and a hundred times darker.

Akane swung her partially controlled arm, breaking free of Ino's control. "You're skill with that jutsu is disturbingly lacking," she stated as she made sure her arm hadn't been harmed by the battle of wills.

"Damn you, why did you kill Naruto?!" Ino shouted. Sure he was a bit of a baka, but he was a good guy once you got to know him. Heck, his idiocy, pranking and the fact that he was clueless 90% of the time was kinda cute.

"Kill him? When did I do that?" the Huntress asked as she nudged Naruto's ribs with the toe of her boot, "he passed out in fear."

Naruto shot up, shaking his head to get rid of his dream of being reduced to tatters. "You!" he shouted as he reached for the woman, only to stop when he saw that it was his sleeve that was in tatters. He looked and saw the jacket was little more than ribbons. "My jacket! Why?" he wailed as he pulled the remains of it off his body.

"It annoyed me. Do you know how hard it was NOT to cut you apart? My eyes are hurting too, so pick a duller shade, like maroon," Akane asked. Well, she was wearing a bright color herself, but at least she matched up with local plant colors.

Naruto glared at the woman as he held the remains of his favorite jacket. "You didn't have to cut it up!"

"One of these days, you'll thank me for what I just did..." Akane stated, whispering a little more so that only Naruto caught it.

"Shinku Kariudo Akane, you are under arrest!" a jōnin stated as he and a group of nine chūnin landed around the woman, two flanking Naruto to ensure his safety.

"One jōnin, eleven chūnin and one powerful genin," Akane listed off as she surveyed her foes, "am I being underestimated?"

"Our strength is different from eighty years ago," the jonin said as he and his squad readied kunai. Truth be told, he felt far from prepared for this.

"You're right about your strength being different from before. Now... you are so much weaker!" and with that, she rammed into the jōnin, knocking him clean off the roof, and ran to the end of the roof she was on. To everyone's shock, she jumped and easily cleared a seven foot span, landing into a tight roll and stopping to face the ninja. "What's the matter? Can't do that?" she challenged.

The ninja were onto the next roof as quickly as they could, which was far faster than her. "Even without our leader, we can take you in."

A loud clattering made them look down, seeing various bombs rolling away from her feet. "Next time, send an ANBU to do the job, unless you like being made out to be fools," she said as she closed her eyes and put a mask over her eyes and face.

BANG! BANG!

The rooftop Akane and the chūnin were on was enveloped in a blindingly bright flash of light and smoke that left the ninja staggering, crying and coughing as they tried to recover from being flash bombed, smoke bombed and hit with gas that irritated their eyes and throats. As the smoke cleared, it was quite obvious that nobody would be going after her since she effectively disabled all their tracking abilities and she managed to alight across the roofs while the smoke obscured the area.

Naruto had seen a shadow and went to follow it, figuring it was that woman.

"Naruto! Don't chase her!" Shikamaru shouted.

"Why?" the blond shouted back.

Shikamaru swallowed the lump in his throat. "She'll kill you this time," he said in a grave tone.

Naruto knew better that to argue with Shikamaru when he spoke that way. Clearly, that woman was very strong and not someone who could be taken down one on one. He jumped to the streets.

Ino stared at Naruto, already thanking the woman. Seriously, why did her wear those jackets, they all made him look bulky. He was actually quite lean and, from what Ino could make out, muscular. Right about now, Ino started to imagine that shirt being cut off him too...

While Ino had been in fantasy land, Naruto made it over to his friends. "Hello! Konoha to Ino!" Naruto said as he waved his hand before her face.

"Eh? Ah, hi!" Ino nervously chirped. Did she just have a little fantasy starring Naruto? Maybe she needed to get out more, train less, meet some guys. Naruto was a good friend, but she was not going to date him. It would just be awkward, dating a guy she treated like an annoyance when they were younger. It'd seem like some kind of twisted tsundere plot to isolate him from other girls, then take 'pity' on him and start dating him as 'the only girl he was close to.' Ino was not a tsundere!

A small distance away, another ninja watched them intently. "So, that's who I have to monitor. I didn't think the Kyūbi jinchūriki would be this weak."

_[A little while later]_

"Hi!" the pale youth from before greeted.

"YOU!?" Naruto shouted.

Sakura did not have a clue what was going on, which was quite normal when it came to Naruto.

"I'm Yamato, I'll be the temporary leader of Team Kakashi," a man, Yamato greeted.

"Do you know him, Naruto?" Sakura asked as she gestured to the new teen.

"Sorry about before, I just like to know my teammate's abilities and limitations," the youth said, "it does bother me that I'll be babysitting a weakling that has no balls and a penis that might satisfy a hamster."

"I'll kill you!" Naruto roared as Sakura held him back.

"You can't kill a teammate!" Sakura shouted, then looked at the youth, "you're really not all that nice."

"I like friendly, flat chested hags like you," the youth said with a smile.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Sakura practically screamed as Yamato held her back.

"Practice what you preach!" Yamato said as he saved the Ne ANBU youth from Sakura's rage.

After he calmed the girl down, he stared at the team. "Normally, I'd toss you all in a cage and let you sniff each other out, but we don't have time for that. I'll improvise along the way. Anyway, at least share your names with me and the new guy."

"Uzumaki Naruto," said blond grumbled while firing a sideways glare at the pale youth.

"Haruno Sakura," said pink haired girl grumbled as she sent a sideways glare at the rude jerk.

"I'm Sai," the 'rude, pale jerk' greeted with a spirited smile.

"Now that we know each others names, we can start with the mission briefing," Yamato said.

Yamato started the briefing, "We will meet up with a fifth member later on, then we will be headed to Tenchi Bridge and meet up with Sasori's spy in Orochimaru's ranks. We will attempt to capture him and bring him back for proper interrogation, which might shed some light on Uchiha Sasuke and Orochimaru's whereabouts. With the right information, we can get Sasuke back and possibly even kill Orochimaru. We'll meet at the front gate in an hour, so make sure you are prepared."

_[later, on the road]_

_'They seem similar, sort of,'_ Naruto thought as he stared down Sai. Sakura had mentioned Sasuke and Sai looked similar, like cousins.

Sai took notice. "Stop staring at me, I don't swing your way."

"Every word out of your mouth never fails to piss me off!" Naruto snapped.

"I don't bear any malice towards you," Sai said.

:"You don't belong here!" Naruto shouted.

Yamato sighed. "You shouldn't say things like that at all, let alone in front of me, the captain. Did you not pay attention when Kakashi-san was teaching you of teamwork and cooperation? I find it hard to believe that you are on Kakashi-san's team..."

"I AM a part of Team Kakashi, he isn't!" Naruto shouted as he pointed at Sai, "the only other member of Team Kakashi left is Sasuke! This guy is nothing more than a placeholder for him."

Sai smiled. "Thank you, I'm glad I'm not like Sasuke in your mind. Who would like to be compared to a traitor who ran to another traitor for power, attacking his own comrades and killing one as well?"

Naruto growled and took a step to hit Sai as hard as he could, but Sakura's arm stopped him. "Teamwork does come first. Sai, please forgive Naruto, he just doesn't take well to strangers," Sakura said.

"At least one of you was paying attention," Yamato said as Naruto wondered what was going on.

Sai was smiling again. "Alright, I'll forgive him."

Sakura smiled back. "Then it's all good." Then she slobber knocked Sai, sending him flying back a few feet from the force of the blow. "I, on the other hand, don't want you to forgive me!" Sakura growled.

"That smile, it completely fooled me," Sai muttered as he wiped blood from his split lip.

"You don't know anything about Sasuke-kun, so don't say anything. Next time you say something like that, you're head will be the only thing flying back," Sakura warned.

"Hmm, I will keep my mouth closed on that matter then. But still, to think a smile can be used in that way," Sai said with a small grin.

"What's wrong with you? You just got punched in the face, but you can still smile?" Naruto asked.

"Smiles are the best way to get out of anything, even if they're fake. I read it in a book once and, amazingly, it always worked, until now," Sai said.

Without warning, a large cage made of wood erupted from the ground behind Yamato. "Here's the cage, so do I need to toss you in? We have five days, but we still have some time," he said.

"Oho. It's been a while since I saw that Mokuton."

Team Kakashi looked towards the voice, seeing a familiar 'face.'

"You!" Naruto and Sakura shouted as they saw the Uchiha who knocked Guy and Tenten out when Gaara had been taken. They ran at him and swung their fists, only to fall onto the ground in a heap.

"Hmm. With these eyes, your 'movements' are more like still pictures," the Uchiha said from his new spot next to Sai.

"Naruto, Sakura, stand down. This is our fifth member," Yamato ordered.

"I'm not going to work with that bastard! He's already attacked some of us, what's to stop him from attacking us?" Naruto asked.

"Your anger is understandable, but like I said before: mercenaries can be your enemy one day, ally the next, neutral the day after. The higher you pay me, the greater my temporary loyalty is to you," the Uchiha explained in a calm voice.

"You hired thug, paid murderer! You'd probably kill your mother for money!" Sakura growled as she pulled on her gloves.

"Someone did that already, though they did it for personal gratification," the Uchiha said.

"Enough! Things can go one of two ways: you get in the cage for a day and sort it out there or we go to a hotel with a hot spring. Which sounds better: fighting for a day or taking a bath?" Yamato asked as his face became scary looking, "I prefer to be friendly and nice, but I will rule with an iron fist of fear if I need to."

And, half an hour later, Naruto found himself naked and in a hot spring with Yamato and Sai. The Uchiha was sitting on a nearby bench, still wearing his hooded robe and mask.

Naruto felt overheated just looking at the guy.

"Ahh! Nothing says companionship to a guy more than hanging out in a hot spring together," Yamato said, not realizing how creepy it sounded, "don't you agree, Naruto?" And now Yamato's creepy face was back.

"R-right!" Naruto yelped as he jumped up. Those eyes! It was like he was looking through your soul!

"Oh! You actually do have one. It looks a little big for a talentless idiot though," Sai said.

"Stop staring and talking about my penis!" Naruto shouted, embarrassing Sakura as all the women chuckled at the conversation on the other side of the wall.

The perverted part of Naruto, that he repeatedly insisted didn't exist, got a very nice idea. There was a wall between the male and female bath, a wall that probably had a low point or a hole somewhere. If there was a way, Naruto could peep on Sakura!

"I wouldn't do that if I was you," the Uchiha warned.

Naruto frowned. "And why not?"

"That girl was trained by Senju Tsunade, Slug Sannin and Godaime Hokage, correct?" the Uchiha asked.

"Yeah," Naruto said.

"And you were trained by the Toad Sage and Sannin Jiraiya, correct?" the Uchiha further inquired.

"Yes," Naruto muttered, getting annoyed now.

The Uchiha nodded to himself. "Did he ever tell you of the time he peeked in on Tsunade when he was younger?"

Naruto started to sweat and it wasn't because of the hot spring. "No..." Tsunade was scary...

"He was almost dead when they found him. Both arms broken, six ribs broken, more internal injuries than you'd care to know about as well as a few ruptured organs. All of that was caused by Senju Tsunade's inhuman striking power. That young woman also has that ability now. Do you still want to peep?" the Uchiha asked.

"No!" Naruto yelped. Tsunade and Sakura were both SCARY!

Yamato got up, securing the towel around his waist. "I'm done for now. Uchiha-san, since you decided not to take a bath with us, how about you and me talk for a while?"

The Uchiha scoffed. "Getting naked with other men or standing around talking. Both are useless to me. Also, my name is Uchiha Bān. Remember that, ANBU-san," he said as he stood up and walked away.

Yamato watched the man walk away and frowned when his students couldn't see him. _'__Uchiha Bān.. That's Chinese for Spots. Is it a coincidence that Madara's name __could__ mean the same thing?'_ No matter what, he'd have to keep a close eye on the mysterious Uchiha.

_[Next night]_

Team Kakashi, plus Sai and Bān, were currently camping, which, to Yamato, meant erecting a small house using Mokuton.

Yamato had made it very clear that it was strictly a live capture mission, which resulted in Bān pulling a wooden sword out from under his robes, saying it was his 'pacification device.' Apparently, his skills weren't designed for anything other than critically injuring and killing, normally leaving such things to his medic and spear using partners. He could use a certain genjutsu on people, but they might be permanently ruined by it, so he chose to use a glorified stick so he could whack Sasuke over the head, if he needed to.

"We'll work in pairs, though Bān-san will be a backup in case one of us falls. Let's see... Naruto and Sai first, which leaves me and Sakura," Yamato said.

"But-" Sakura started, knowing that she and Naruto would work well together.

"You are our medical ninja and I want to make sure that you remain mostly unharmed," Yamato said.

_'Naruto would never let me be harmed,'_ Sakura thought, but didn't say anything. She knew that, in the end, she'd just tie Naruto down.

"ANBU-san, that is a moronic idea," Bān stated.

Yamato sighed. "And how is it a bad idea?"

"Don't put words in my mouth. I said moronic idea, not bad idea. Anybody with two eyes and an adequate number of functional brain cells can see that 'Sai' and the Uzumaki can't work together for different reasons. Uzumaki Naruto's reason is the feared replacement of his friend and former teammate, Uchiha Sasuke, while Sai just doesn't know how to work in a team. Putting these two together is bound to cause complications during the mission, ANBU-san" Bān explained.

"What did you say?" Yamato asked as his face went into scary mode.

Bān chuckled. "Is that supposed to be scary? I've seen things that would make you commit ritual suicide," he said as purple and green flames licked around his right hand and forearm.

Yamato had read the report, finding it odd that Tenten and Guy couldn't remember what they had seen, just that it had been downright terrifying at the moment. It was theorized that the images faded because they were foreign memories implanted by Bān. Then again, Yamato wasn't interested in finding out what was seen for himself. "What is your suggestion then?"

"Uzumaki Naruto has worked with an Uchiha who possessed Sharingan, so he should be able to fight alongside me, to a somewhat workable degree. What I'm saying is, instead of having me as a reserve, I'll work beside both Sai and the Uzumaki," Bān suggested.

Yamato thought about it. The plan was sound, allowing the Uchiha to cover for any holes the two and their problems would cause. It would also make monitoring both Sai and Bān far easier. "Alright, we'll see how things go tomorrow. We'll be doing a bit of training so I can learn some of what I wanted to learn about you three."

"What do you want to know?" Naruto asked.

"I only know what is in your files, if you have a file to begin with," Yamato said while looking at the Uchiha and Ne ANBU, "what I want to know about is how you fight, what jutsu you use and what skills you bring into a battle. I want what is never written down in the files: you."

_[Next day]_

Naruto and the Uchiha came at Yamato, the Uchiha from the ground and Naruto from slightly in the air. The ANBU dodged the wooden sword Bān swung and shifted aside to avoid Naruto's kick. Bān swung his sword down at Yamato, forcing the man to dodge backwards as the Uchiha kept advancing.

It was pure luck on Yamato's part that Naruto accidentally stepped on some pebbles, alerting him to the real Naruto's attempt to drive a rasengan into him. Yamato spun, grabbed Naruto and threw him into Bān, who knocked the hand away that held the rasengan before the two crashed into each other. To Yamato's shock, the two burst into clouds of expended chakra.

"Got you!" Naruto shouted as Bān struck Yamato in the back as the blond shinobi jumped off his back, fist cocked back to pummel the man as he landed on him. Sai's ink snakes weren't seen until they wrapped around the real Naruto and Yamato. "Why me too?" Naruto shouted, then realized he was holding a wood clone as he got tied up, "untie me now!" Bān did just that, trying in vain to tear the serpent apart.

Sai ignored the two and went to go get Yamato.

_[Five minutes later]_

Naruto was pissed off, Bān was examining his wooden sword for damage and Sai had a bad bump on his head.

"You three failed," Yamato droned out.

"The one at fault here is Sai," Bān said as he lay his weapon down, "he chose to remain back, leaving me and Uzumaki Naruto to do all the work while he went ahead with his own plans."

"And why did you hit him over the head?" Yamato asked.

Bān's mangekyō sharingan flashed a bit. "Because I could. ….Because I thought he was you." Nobody doubted that the first was the truth.

Naruto glared at Sai. "Do you even know what the word 'comrade' is?"

Sai pulled out his scroll and wrote the word on it. "Of course I know. Are you going to try blaming me for you making mistakes from the beginning to the end of that exercise?"

"He should. Even I, an Uchiha who doesn't like working with those who aren't my allies, understand what he means," Bān said.

"And what did he mean?" Sai asked.

"You know the word, but not the meaning. You didn't treat Uzumaki Naruto like a comrade at all, it was more like you were using him as a tool to further your own goals. If you ask me, the biggest mistake so far was having you as a part of this mission," Bān stated in a cold tone as he turned to Sai, "now that I think about it, you were using me as a tool as well. I should rip you to shreds and scatter you across the Nations."

"After seeing Naruto's lack of skill, the only viable way to succeed was to let him do as he wished and then capture the target myself. I'll leave you, Bān-san, to slow yourself down to his speed while I finish the mission," Sai said.

"You were right before, about not being like Sasuke-kun at all," Sakura said, "Sasuke-kun would have helped Naruto to capture Yamato-taichou, not use him."

Naruto turned away from Sai. "You aren't a member of Team Kakashi or a comrade of mine." He didn't accept Bān, but at least the man TRIED to be a comrade. Naruto knew from watching the man's movements, he could have captured Yamato on his own and very easily, but he chose to gold himself back and assist Naruto.

"Even now, you consider that traitor Sasuke a friend," Sai said with a sigh.

Naruto glared at Sai. "For that friend, I'll work with you and that Uchiha." Then he started to walk away, wanting to get the spy and find Sasuke.

"Why does he care about someone like that so much still? I read the report, Uchiha Sasuke came close to killing him and killed another of Naruto's friends, one Kazeneko Yue," Sai said, confused to some degree.

"Naruto sees Sasuke-kun as both rival and brother. You have a brother too, right? You must know what it's like," Sakura explained.

"Not at all. You remember asking me why I never named my pictures? It's because I don't have any emotions at all," Sai said.

_'No...emotions?'_ Sakura wondered, shocked. "What do you mean by having no emotions?"

"Simple: I don't feel any way about anything," Sai stated.

"Then what about your brother? Can you imagine what it'd be like without him around?" Sakura asked as she watched Naruto claw a tree with his nails. Could the Kyūbi have hardened his nails to do that?

Sai smiled a fake smile. "Easily, since he's already dead."

"Tha-" Sakura started.

"Ah. Is that the correct expression to use when sad?" Sai asked as he pointed to Naruto, who looked lost, worried, tired and lonely as he probably thought of his wayward teammate.

Sakura was starting to get scared and worried all at once. Sai was extremely odd and, as far as she could tell, was capable of almost anything.

"Alright, it's time to get moving. Cut the chatter," Yamato said as he walked between the two. Sai went to follow the man, but he sensed that Sakura wasn't quite finished with him yet.

"I told you that I'd remove your head if you ever insulted Sasuke-kun again, but Naruto said he'd work with you and that Uchiha just to get our teammate back. So long as you two help us, I won't hurt either of you." Sakura said/warned. If that Uchiha or Sai had ulterior motives, they'd be dead before they knew it.

Sai thought about it for a moment. "Sakura-san, when it comes to Naruto, you treat him... gently. I'm not sure if that's the right word, but it does sort of fit. I don't understand emotions, especially the ones you three share even though I read about them in books." Of course, Sakura's drive to protect Naruto seemed stronger than her desire to bring Sasuke back. He'd have to read a certain book again when he got back later, just to confirm his thoughts.

"Come on. We have to get moving now," Naruto half commanded, "we'll get there by noon if we go now." 

Bān watched all this happen, wondering when he could slip away. With luck, they'd get to Orochimaru and Bān would be ready. Hopefully, the others weren't too far behind.

_[Tenchi Bridge, next day]_

Yamato, under the guise of Sasori's puppet body, waited as the cloaked figure walked up to him, meeting him in the middle of the bridge.

"Sasori-sama, it has been about..." the man stopped to think as he pulled off his cloak, revealing none other than Yakushi Kabuto, "about five years since we last met."

"Were you followed?" Yamato asked. It was a standard question for a meeting such as this.

"No, we're safe for now," Kabuto said, knowing he was slightly pressed for time.

"Any after effects?" Yamato asked, knowing such heavy jutsu often debilitated the victim.

"I was lost for a few moments as new memories appeared in my head, but I managed. It was difficult to slip away from Orochimaru, but he was busy with Sasuke when I left," Kabuto said.

"The last Uchiha... Tell me where the base is as well as what you know of Sasuke," Yamato demanded.

Kabuto adjusted his glasses slightly. "We have a large amount of bases that we switch between on a weekly basis to avoid detection. We have bases in other countries that Orochimaru's spies monitor and guide us to if we need them. The way we move is... bothersome to say the least. Our current base is on a small island cave to the north. We'll be moving from there in three days. Sasuke will be traveling with us, as always."

Yamato took in the information, wondering if this was the right moment to capture the boy. Just a few more moments...

Kabuto turned and threw a kunai at a bush, hitting nothing, but making a rabbit pop out. "Wild rabbit, thought it was a spy..."

That did it. If Kabuto was this jumpy, chances were that he had been followed. Yamato got ready.

"Sasori-sama, as for that task you gave me," Kabuto suddenly said, surprising Yamato, "I wasn't able to collect any samples. Orochimaru uses some kind of chemical or poison to rapidly break the body down when he's done with it."

"I see..." Yamato said, running out of conversation topics. He definitely needed to capture him soon.

Kabut held out his hand. "Sasori-sama, I'd like what I asked for last time. I'm out of time and I'll be killed if I'm found here with you."

"Fine," Yamato said, then pulled out his kunai to capture the boy. Once he pinned him down, the others could come out.

"Such a fascinating conversation, mind if I join?" Orochimaru asked, appearing behind Kabuto with a fair sized serpent loosely coiling about the youth. When it went to constrict him, Kabuto jumped away and stood next to Yamato.

"Thanks for that, Sasori-sama. Had you not drawn your kunai, I'd have been caught," Kabuto said.

"Ahh, that cloak has some nice memories attached to it... How are you lately, Sasori?" Orochimaru asked.

"You followed him, Orochimaru," Yamato stated in a disappointed tone.

"Such a great child you sent me. Without him and his medical ninjutsu around, I'd need hundreds of test subjects rather than a few dozen," Orochimaru said, his thanks being black hearted, but still whole.

Kabuto activated his chakra scalpel, then cut Yamato's wood puppet body apart. Yamato quickly retreated, wondering where he went wrong as he tried to slow the bleeding.

"**Sen'ei Tajashu!"** Orochimaru hissed as a dozen or so snakes flowed out of his sleeve, all aiming for the retreating jōnin. He was caught and bitten, or at least his wood clone was. "Oh, Mokuton and kawarimi. Could it be..."

"Orochimaru-sama, is that the real Sasori?" Kabuto asked.

Orochimaru was a little surprised. "No... Don't tell me you worked for someone you never saw in the 'flesh,' so to speak."

"I did, but he was always inside that puppet of his," Kabuto admitted.

"Kabuto, you're an Akatsuki spy, so why are you siding with Orochimaru? You should be under the power of Sasori's jutsu," Yamato said.

"Ah, Orochimaru-sama got rid of that annoying thing a while ago," Kabuto stated.

"Acting like you were still under the effects of Sasori's jutsu while you were really under Orochimaru's jutsu, I should have known," Yamato said.

Kabuto smiled. "I'm not under the effect of any jutsu. I decided to follow Orochimaru-sama of my own free will, mostly because I admire his total lack of regard for the 'rules' that restrict our research," the glasses wearing youth said, then stared at Yamato, "but who are you and why are you here? We came here with the intent to kill Sasori off to lessen our troubles."

"I already know his story, Kabuto, but it'd be rude to tell a story without everyone present. Why not call those little morsels hiding behind back there?" Orochimaru suggested.

Yamato signed to the others to come to him. Sai, Sakura, Naruto and Bān landed before him.

Kabuto regarded Naruto with a bored expression. "Don't you get tired of playing hero?"

"Ah, the Kyūbi boy. I feel the need to play a little bit. Now, Naruto-kun, let's see who has shown the most improvement; you or Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru gleefully hissed.

"_**Give...**_ him... **_back..."_** Naruto growled, the influence of the nine-tails growing stronger with his growing anger.

"Still deluded, or would it be stupid? Sasuke-kun came to us all on his own. We can't give what we never took, idiot. Grow up and give up on him, he already gave up on you and Konoha," Kabuto explained.

"Shut up four eyes! You don't know anything at all!" Sakura shouted. She HATED it when people treated Naruto like this, which made her hate her younger self a lot at times.

"If you want to know more about Sasuke-kun, beat it out of me. That is if you can beat it out of me," Orochimaru challenged.

Without warning, the area Naruto inhabited exploded and he appeared before Orochimaru in a blink of an eye, surprising the man himself as Naruto dug his chakra enhanced nails into the man's skull and threw him into the forest, leaving a trail of destruction as Orochimaru's limp body punched through everything.

Sakura and Sai were completely stunned, Sakura due to not realizing how powerful the Kyūbi was even though it was sealed up and Sai was surprised because he hadn't been informed of the amount of the Kyūbi's power that Naruto could access..

Bān smirked beneath his mask. _'So he can use it. This makes my plan much easier to complete.'_

"Ahh, such a well developed jinchūriki," Kabuto praised.

Orochimaru walked up, a sharp crack coming from his neck and lower back as they realigned themselves. He looked at Team Kakashi, his real face showing under his torn false face. "Naruto-kun, you are quite a powerful jinchūriki now, thanks to that beast."

Bān snorted. "No, he's still pretty weak. A proper Kyūbi jinchūriki would have sent your rotting carcass to Kumo's far border."

Orochimaru chose to ignore the shrouded Uchiha, instead focusing on Yamato. "So that's why they chose you to tag along, experiment-kun. I never thought that particular one worked, but here you are. Funny, Konoha despised me because of my 'unethical' research, but they don't mind using the fruits of it."

"Experiment? Who and what is that guy," Kabuto asked.

"You know of the Shodai Hokage, correct? His Mokuton was useful for far more than just creating forests and manipulating trees during a fight. His power was able to control the Bijū as well. I wanted that power, so when I did get some of his DNA, I tried to implant it into some subjects so that I could eventually have that power for myself. I used 60 children for that experiment, but most of them rejected the DNA and started dying, so I assumed that all of them would. It was my sole failing as a researcher, since at least one is standing before me," Orochimaru explained as he repaired his face.

"Well, you can collect this one and finally have that power for yourself, Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto suggested.

"A good idea, but I'd like to see my Sasuke-kun fight the Kyūbi boy just once. I'm curious of this child now," Orochimaru admitted. The past jinchūriki of the Kyūbi rarely to never used the fox's power, so Naruto was a first.

"_**He isn't yours... Sasuke isn't YOURS!"**_ Naruto roared as his cloak developed a third tail.

Sakura now knew that what she felt before was nothing, it was just one tail. Three tails was far more than she could have ever imagined. The pressure from the air, the hate filled chakra flowing through it, feeding it, it actually made her feel a slight sting of pain when the...darkened winds touched her flesh. What would all nine feel like? She shivered and held herself, dreading a day that she never hoped came because she believed that it would be the last day she would ever see Naruto.

Orochimaru knew that, without his extreme healing abilities and heavily modified body, he wouldn't last ten seconds against Naruto as he was now. The sheer killing intent and rage from the partially freed Kyūbi was enough that, just like how he had done with Sasuke and his little teammate during the second exam, the beast roared and Orochimaru's mental image was obliterated from just the killing intent.

**A/N~**

I figure I'll end it here, for now. Next chapter continues the fight as well as brings us to the much await reunion.

And now for some irony. Remember how I mentioned worrying about losing the internet, three days after posting that exact chapter, my computer took a final blow and stopped functioning. Wouldn't even attempt to start windows. Thankfully, my machine is almost 100% again, just need to find out why I'm one SATA data cable short and reconnect my 500GB storage drive, which contains all my original fanfiction files.

And it is worse, since my sister is getting paranoid over bills. She is harping everyone now and annoying us all, acting like just starting up the internet will use up tons of bandwidth and use it all up. We're getting so worried about he outbursts that we aren't using the net at all lately, since she'll just start screaming at us. Hell, I'd love to throw her useless, parasitic ass out on the streets, but she's family, unfortunately.

As a friend of my nephew says: fuck my life!

**Responses-**

**The Keeper of Worlds:** Here is more! Hope you liked Naruto getting oggled.

**Sky Zepherus:** Sakura is more than indecisive, she's downright delusional. You'll see what I mean soon, if you haven't seen it already in later chapters.

**0Firestar001:** About 20-30% of my nephew's time is idling or raging about people killing him in crazy ways. (better known as with greater skill or OP weapon abuse) Do remember that the more he plays, the greater the chance of him running over our rather limited bandwidth. (66GB is not much, but my sister thinks it is a huge amount of bandwidth)

**Yuri-Hime-Chan:** You'll see...later!

**DarkLordK:** Um, Tenten isn't dead, she just passed out from illusion overload. As for the Uchiha, yeah, I can only think of a few tall Uchiha who can control the nine-tailed fox.

**Serenity-neko-chan:** But what happened to her after I cut scene? Keep reading to find out, since Sasuke would know and he's coming up next.

**Narutokurosaki:** Meh, we all know Madara's plan is bound to fail. In reality, I think the Infinite Tsukuyomi plan is nothing more than the ultimate escape for the ultimate master of run, Madara. Think of it, a world where everything is perfect for each person, including Madara and Onito, doesn't that sound like a way of avoiding reality? It's pathetic and sad to think that the two big villains are like that.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Difference and Reunion

**Disclaimer: I'd rather own Ino, Anko and Tayuya, but I don't own anything other than OCs. That means I don't own the Naruto series.**

An unbearable well of fear seemingly opened beneath Sakura as a new, extremely rough chakra appeared out of nowhere.

_'W-what is this?'_ she wondered as her heart practically stopped and she felt the pressure of death.

"Hmm, seems my robes couldn't handle the pressure of Kyūbi's chakra and mine pressing on either side," Bān stated as he looked at the rips in his robes. Sakura saw that the top left half of his mask was barely holding on, being cracked up the center of his forehead and to the side under his eye. It was almost like someone punched him in the face and only damaged his mask.

The members of Team Kakashi realized that Bān's robes and mask must hide his chakra since they hadn't felt a scrap of chakra from him before this moment.

As the bridge came apart, Kabuto ran at Naruto with his chakra scalpel, figuring a missing limb or two would slow even Naruto down for a while, if not permanently. He didn't count on Naruto shouting, destroying the bridge with chakra enhanced noise. Both medics suffered from the blast, Sakura slamming her head into the bridge and getting knocked out while Kabuto flew into the forest where Team Kakashi had been hiding.

Yamato quickly stabilized his half of the bridge with mokuton, then noticed Sakura's immobile form sliding down the bridge. _'She must have hit her head,'_ he thought as he noticed Sai create a giant ink bird. "Sai! Help Sakura!" he ordered, then watched as Sai flew right passed Sakura without trying to help at all. "Damn," he grunted as he created another tree root, snaring Sakura before she fell down into the river far below. "Where's Bān-san? He was just here."

Bān had followed Naruto, watching as the genin battered the traitor around. So far, Naruto had caused quite a bit of damage to the man, even ripping his arm clean off. None of that stopped Orochimaru as he merely spat up a new body, one free of injuries. "Just like Kabuto-kun said before, without that beast, you are nothing at all. Without using that monster's might, you are nothing more than a talentless idiot, not even worthy of the title 'ninja.' It is that weakness that killed Yue-kun three years ago. How long will it take for that weakness to kill that pink haired medic you adore?" Orochimaru asked. Then he became slightly worried as Naruto visibly started showing signs of pain, all while a fourth tail started forming, seeming to hurt as it bubbled into existence.

Naruto's eyes went completely blank as his skin started peeling off, his blood entering the chakra shroud as small wounds started expanding on his his body.

"So much closer to the real thing," Bān said from near Orochimaru as he calmly watched events unfold.

Orochimaru regarded the man. "You seem to know too much, stray Uchiha."

"I'm no stray. I'm an exile, and I know far more about what is going on in this world than you do, Orochimaru," Bān stated as his sharingan flicked between the sannin and the jinchūriki.

"Your name, Uchiha," Orochimaru demanded.

The top left part of Bān's mask fell away, spiky black hair falling out from under it and ending a bit below his jawline. His skin was very lightly tanned. "For now, I'm Uchiha Bān. If you ever learn my real name, I'll need to remove you."

Naruto released an inhuman roar as his chakra seemingly exploded, causing significant damage to most of the surrounding area. Even Sai, who was in the air and a 'safe' distance from the scene found himself falling as his bird was wiped out.

What remained in the center of a very large crater was Naruto, covered in reddish black chakra that showed nothing more than four tails, a humanoid fox-like figure and a blank eyed face with a wickedly jagged mouth.

Orochimaru decided to start first, releasing dozens of snakes from his mouth, which quickly increased to well over a hundred. Naruto didn't even flinch, he just swung his hand and cut them all apart with a massive wind blade. He brought his hands over his head, then slammed them into the ground. Orochimaru, on reflex, jumped away in time to avoid a large pair of chakra arms that nearly ripped him apart. A new pair of arms shot out of the others, following the man like hounds from Hell. The traitor tried to stop them with an extra strong snake, but it started dying almost instantly. The original arms angled down, following the smaller ones to kill the man.

With his options of stopping the arms gone, Orochimaru spat up a body with a snake's tail for legs and used it to get past the chakra arms and into attack range. The punch seemed like a good idea at the time, even as the skin of the Sannin's fingers started to tear away from touching the shroud of chakra, but a mass of of Kyūbi Naruto shaped chakra rising from the reeling body and the accompanying swipe of claws that ripped Orochimaru clean in two said otherwise. Even with the damage, Orochimaru was able to reattach his upper and lower body, though he did get it wrong at first.

Naruto roared as he released chakra from his body, black and white bits of it coming together to form a black sphere before his mouth.

"Well, seems I need to block this one," Orochimaru said, knowing that this particular attack would cause extensive damage, if not death, just from how much chakra he could feel. Before he could move, Orochimaru found himself wrapped in tree roots, binding him in place as they wrapped around his entire body and head, sealing his mouth shut as well. He couldn't use any of his snake enhanced abilities with how he was held.

"Can't have you showing off your mastery of the 'art of run,' Orochimaru," Bān said, his sharingan glowing an inhuman red, "you should avoid more, rather than show off all your tricks. A simple body binding is more than enough to make you even more pathetic than normal. I'm not entirely without mercy, I'll block some of what's to come." Bān walked over to the trapped Sannin. **"****Mokuton: Mokujōheki,"** Bān stated as two very thick walls made out of tree trunks rose up before the man and his captive, "this will let you taste a bit of mortality."

Orochimaru didn't get to protest as Bān vanished, then Orochimaru's world was consumed in agony and light as Naruto's tailed beast ball slammed into the pitiful barricade, then him.

When the smoke cleared, Orochimaru was a broken lump of flesh, barely any of his bones or organs undamaged from the blast. It proved to be a partial ruse, as his head burst from the ground, the sword of Kusanagi hitting Naruto square in the heart. As an added measure, Orochimaru pushed him all the way back to the other side of the bridge. Sadly, it didn't mean all that much because the sword couldn't pierce Naruto's shroud.

Everyone moved as Naruto attempted to break Orochimaru's neck by gripping the sword and swinging it. He mindlessly roared at Orochimaru, wanting to destroy him.

"He's willing to lose everything to bring back Sasuke-kun. I don't know whether to admire him or pity him, fighting for what all others would call a lost cause while becoming one himself," Kabuto muttered.

Sakura got up and ran, ignoring Yamato's warning. For some reason, the thought of losing Naruto was extremely painful. The most agonizing thing that kept hitting her was what led up to Naruto suffering while using that power.

The promise he made to her three years ago. Naruto was destroying himself and throwing all he'd worked so hard for, all for her.

"Naruto! Stop it! I'll get Sasuke-kun back, so just stop!" Sakura yelled as she drew closer to the boy, "please come back to me!"

Yamato tried to stop Naruto's movements, but it wasn't enough and he raked a claw ended tail across her left bicep, leaving three shallow wounds that were rapidly draining her strength. It was almost like the chakra was poisonous.

Kabuto moved up and reached for Sakura, but Yamato stopped him. The wayward medic then revealed the plans of him and Orochimaru as he healed Sakura: Konoha ninja were the traitorous Sannin's pawns against Akatsuki, since Team Kakashi had killed at least one and Akatsuki enjoyed interrupting Orochimaru every time they could.

"I've done what I can, your 'companion' is your own responsibility," Kabuto said as he looked towards Naruto, then vanished to go find his master.

Yamato looked and saw Bān coming over. As much as he hated it, he decided this would make things easier. "Bān-san, can you assist me in subduing the Kyūbi with your sharingan?" he asked. He had read the report and knew that, according to Naruto, the Uchiha had forced the fox back.

Bān shook his head. "No, use that famed mokuton to control the beast. That's your role here, ANBU."

Yamato used the Shodai Hokage's technique to force the Kyubi's chakra back using the necklace's power. While Naruto did return to 'normal,' it was clear as day that he wouldn't be able to move right away.

_[A small distance away]_

Orochimaru's newly remade body was hurting. He had exited his old body and fell to the ground like a corpse. That damn Uchiha truly had made him draw close to death, tasting it even. The Sannin had no chakra left to fight with and his body was aching with an almost deathly pain. To add to it, his current body started to reject him in full force, almost. He swore that he'd rip that bastard's eyes out and keep them as trophies!

The Sannin managed to pick himself up and heard a noise that announced the arrival of that pale boy from Naruto's team.

"I am Danzō-sama's representative, not an enemy. I want to talk to you about some things," Sai said.

Orochimaru couldn't believe it as he retrieved the white snake, the other form of his prized sword. "So that old fool is still breathing... What does he want now?"

"I have a message from Danzo-sama, so please listen-" Sai started.

"Choose your words carefully, boy!" Orochimaru hissed.

"Like I said, this is exactly how Danzō-sama said it, so don't hate me for it," Sai apologized.

Orochimaru smiled, then threw Kusanagi through Sai's body. "Such bad manners. When you speak to a superior, always say it yourself."

Sai came out of the ground as his ink clone fell apart, the double-edged jian changing into a snake and returning to Orochimaru.

_[Back with Team Kakashi]_

Sakura was healing Naruto, forcing herself through the pain in her injured arm. Despite being mostly healed, the wound still felt fresh and Sakura was certain that it'd leave a scar for the rest of her life. She'd have to cover it up later.

"I can assist you with my chakra, if you want," Bān offered.

Sakura shivered, feeling his vile chakra settling in the air like a poisonous bog. She could barely stand it as a background feeling, to have it flow through her, and into Naruto, never in a million years. "No thanks," she said, then focused on healing Naruto. She remembered the technique Yamato had used to bring Naruto back to his usual self. "Taichou, can you teach me the jutsu you used to return Naruto to normal?" she asked.

Yamato shook his head. "This is a bloodline technique that I artificially received. I'm compatible with the Shodai Hokage's cells and I may be the only one. Konoha would never subject people to what I went through, so there will never be another," he explained.

"I'm still the same... No matter how much I trained, what I can do for Naruto is still almost nothing at all," Sakura admitted as the pain of her own uselessness washed over her.

"It doesn't matter if you can only do little things to help him out. What truly matters is the strong feelings you hold for Naruto," Yamato said. Honestly, you didn't worry over any friend this much. When Sakura gave the man a confused smile, he sighed. "Sakura, you may not realize it now, but to you, Naruto is-"

"Ouch! Anyone get the name of that mountain?" Naruto asked.

Yamato rolled his eyes. _'Naruto, you are the only man who can ruin a mood you are part of! Well, maybe Jiraiya-sama is too.'_

"Naruto!" Sakura cried out as tears of relief filled the corners of her eyes.

"What happened?" Naruto asked, then noticed that Sakura was crying. "Did that Sai say something bad again? Like calling you an old hag? Or inhumanly strong? Did he badmouth your forehead? Did he say anything bad about your bre-"

BAM! "Enough Naruto! Only you go on like that!" Sakura snapped. After she re-injured Naruto, she realized that Sai wasn't around. "Yamato-taichou, where's Sai?"

"He is part of Orochimaru's group now," Yamato said.

"What?" Sakura gasped.

"Follow me," Yamato said as he led them to the area Naruto had leveled. Once there, he confirmed what Jiraiya had said before about Naruto entering that state and forgetting all events that occurred while like that. Sakura lied and told Naruto that he'd been knocked out early on.

Sakura noted some of Sai's belongings on the ground. She ignored the scroll, knowing it was probably blank. Instead, she found a book underneath it. "What are Sai's things doing here?"

"Sai was forced to the ground by Kabuto and dropped those. He forgot them, probably due to fear of Orochimaru, or maybe he just left them since they mean nothing to him," Yamato stated.

"How do you know all this?" Sakura asked.

Yamato looked ahead."My wood clone was here not too long ago. It has a radio with it, so it gave me the specifics."

"Can you tell us those specifics?" Sakura was starting to feel an odd coldness creeping up on her.

"Sai was talking with them, then they all left as a group," Yamato said.

"What did they say?" Bān asked. His plan might get messed up if Danzō started something up. He might need to erase that old war hawk.

Yamato shook his head. "They were too far away for the clone to hear anything."

"Was he taken by force?" Sakura asked.

"No, he approached and then went with them of his own free will," Yamato said.

"He might be an ass, but he's no traitor!" Naruto shouted.

Sakura felt her stomach drop. "No, he probably did betray us... Yamato-taichou, do you know about Danzō?"

Yamato nodded. "He stood opposite to the Sandaime in everything."

"Who is this Danzō guy?" Naruto asked, having never met him.

"Danzō is Sai's superior and a person who believed in military power over diplomacy," Sakura explained.

Yamato started putting pieces together and didn't like the disgusting picture that was coming into focus. "It could be that Sai was sent here to further, or start up Danzō's plans. Him coming on this mission could have been a ruse for a secret mission given to him by Danzō that has nothing to do with our own."

"So that little liar was never helping you three, pitifully obvious," Bān stated. And they questioned his place in the team. Well, it wasn't like he was much better, but at least he gave them warning.

"This is all guesswork, but I think that Danzō is going to use Orochimaru to kill Tsunade-sama and take her place by helping Oto attack the village again," Yamato said.

Sakura picked up on his line of thought. "So that people see that we 'needed' the military power he said we lacked, allowing him to enact almost any policies with full support of the people, his own ideal village..."

Yamato nodded. "And because he failed last time, Danzō thinks that Orochimaru will be more willing to listen now."

"He couldn't..." Naruto muttered.

"He was sent to gain Orochimaru's trust and become a go-between. We probably weren't meant to survive," Sakura stated.

"So are we going to kill that child?" Bān asked. Being issued a no-kill order by a Senju's pet was annoying.

"Probably. We need to start following them now. For all we know, they'll start fleeing right after they get to their base," Yamato half suggested, half ordered.

"Let's go! Ugh..." Naruto grunted as he fell over.

"I know we need to go, but Naruto is in no shape to move right now," Sakura said as she helped Naruto up.

"He has enough strength to return to Konoha on his own, so we'll go ahead without him," Yamato stated.

"Kakashi-sensei would never leave one of us behind!" Sakura shouted.

"Sakura-chan. Don't worry, I can make it," Naruto said, breathing quite hard still.

"Me and Kakashi were a team in ANBU, so I know how he is. While I am his replacement, I am not him. I won't protect you because you no longer need it. You'll have to grow stronger than Kakashi and protect the village without him at your side someday. We need to follow the trail now or we'll never get to Orochimaru or Sasuke again," Yamato said, letting the two know how he and the world was.

Sakura thought about it, hating how right Yamato was. "I understand..."

"I'll carry him and feed him some of my chakra. Despite how it is, he should be able to absorb it just fine," Bān said, then hoisted Naruto onto his back. Naruto noted that Bān was wearing armor under his robes, that and the man smelled of ash.

A few minutes later, Sakura nearly fell down and broke her spine, but Yamato caught her first and lay her near a tree. It seemed that the wound Naruto gave her was something that medical ninjutsu couldn't completely heal.

Sakura noticed that Naruto was staring at the wound. "Kabuto got to me with some kind of poisoned weapon, but it only hurts a bit, so don't worry," Sakura lied. The pain was getting worse, as was the weakness in her left arm.

"Sakura-chan, don't go forcing yourself so much," Naruto said.

Sakura couldn't help but smile a bit. Telling her to ease up while he went hundreds of times further than she did. Typical Naruto.

"We'll take a break, since Sakura is pivotal to our mission as our sole medic," Yamato said.

"I'm fine! The trail will go cold if we don't go now!" Sakura protested.

"Rushing will only hurt us in the end. We need to be fully prepared, since we're going into a snake's den soon," Yamato stated.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, Sakura-chan is our overpowered medic, so she needs to rest too."

"Stop going on about my strength like that!" Sakura shouted.

"Naruto, Bān will take Sai's place as your battle partner. Before we go, I'd like to explain the altered battle plans to you," Yamato half lied. Naruto needed to know the truth and Sakura wasn't willing to let him know. Of course, anyone could tell he was lying since Bān wasn't present to hear of the 'plans,' meaning this was something that only concerned Naruto.

While the two male Konoha ninja were talking, Sakura looked at Bān, wondering if he, too, would betray them.

"That chakra that seeped into your arm, it won't go away too easily..." he stated, thinking hard. Bān placed his left hand on Sakura's wounded arm and concentrated, a cold white light surrounding it.

"What are-" Sakura started, but then felt the pain lessen to almost nothing. Her strength was returning as well.

Bān opened his eyes. "I dragged out as much of the Kyūbi's chakra as I could absorb for now, your body can take care of the rest. It isn't medical ninjutsu, so I can't teach it to you." He then turned his attention to Naruto and Yamato, frowning at them. He'd have to talk to Naruto later on, if he could manage it before things went south. The Kyūbi was required for his plans.

"Guys, come look at this!" Sakura called.

"That's Ne ANBU Sai's book, right?" Bān asked after Naruto and Yamato gathered round.

Naruto frowned. "Those drawings look so strange..."

"The center is the oddest," Sakura said as she turned to said pages.

"What is it supposed to be?" Naruto wondered.

Sakura was also wondering that. "These are the only unfinished pages in the entire book."

"Show us the other pages and we might understand these two," Yamato suggested.

Sakura started to explain what she had figured out so far, like how the book was about the boys on each cover. After a few pages, Naruto pointed out that the boy took the weapons and some of the clothes his previous opposite had. Yamato decided that the men facing the boy had been killed and the boy had taken their equipment. Naruto realized the black haired by looked like Sai, while Sakura remembered that Sai had a brother, who must have been the reverse cover's boy.

"We should get going, since my clone found Orochimaru's base," Yamato said as he got up.

_[Orochimaru's lair, thirty minutes later]_

Sai was surprised when the door was unlocked so soon after Kabuto left, even more surprised when it was Team Kakashi who had done it.

"The wondrous skill of the Hokage's personal ANBU. I should have known that fake corpse wouldn't slow you at all," Sai said with a cheerful tone and a smile, both fake.

"You have some explaining to do!" Naruto shouted.

"You may want to quiet down a bit, unless you want to get caught," Sai warned.

"He's right Naruto," Sakura said, then handed Sai his book, "this is yours, don't drop it again."

"Thanks," Sai said, not lying at all. He felt lost without this little book.

"You're here on Danzō's orders, right? You better tell us the truth about his plans," Sakura said, clenching her fist.

"Konoha's destruction, correct?" Yamato guessed.

"Not at-" Sai started.

Naruto growled as he stepped forward. "Stop lying and smiling like that or you'll be crapping teeth!"

Sai frowned. "Well, you already figured it all out and I can't kill you all, so why lie? Yes, Danzō-sama is planning to have Tsunade killed so he can become the Hokage."

"Start talking," Yamato ordered.

Sai started telling them everything, the plan to ally with Orochimaru, him leaking Konoha's information as well as Danzō's plans to the traitor using his ink animals, everything. He even told them that orders were something he HAD to carry out, that and 'Sai' was just a codename he had been given for the mission, telling them it had no meaning to him. He called himself a tool and a nobody, just a thing to carry out another person's orders.

"Then why is that book so important to you?" Sakura asked. It was the one chink in his story. When he didn't answer, Sakura told him why. "It's because it represents a bond you shared with your brother, something that made you a person due to its importance to you."

"Sorry for intruding, but we looked through it all and found only the middle pages incomplete. From what we saw, your brother and you were supposed to fight in the end," Yamato said, "emotion killing training, Kirigakure's little gift to the world. Various tests leading up to the final one, the one where you killed-"

"You're wrong!" Sai snapped, real anger in his voice, "this book was supposed to be a gift to him, but he died of an illness before I could finish it." Sai looked at the book, the only constant in his life other than Danzō's orders, assassinations and his gear. "We weren't real brothers, but he said he liked my drawings. Ne ANBU is composed purely of battle orphaned children and I drew close to the one I would come to call brother. This book... After he died, I forgot what was supposed to be in the center pages..."

"Come, we need to step outside," Yamato ordered as he led his team and captive out of the lair. Once outside, he restrained the teen with the wood release. "I'm going to leave a wood clone behind to watch over you."

"Time to get back to retrieving Sasuke," Naruto said.

"...You may want to rethink that. I met him not too long ago. It seems he and Orochimaru are always close to each other, meaning you'll probably get torn to ribbons or made into experimental materials," Sai warned, "and even though you, Naruto, see him as a brother, he has cast you all aside like dust on his shoulder. Is fighting Orochimaru worth bringing back a person like that?"

"I used to hate Sasuke, but the more time I spent around him, the more I realized he was a great person to be around. He, more than anyone else, accepted me. Sasuke is my friend and he represents one of the many bonds I wanted over the years," Naruto said.

"To go so far because he was your strongest bond, that could be viewed as idiotic. It'd be far easier to make better, more...wholesome bonds, ones not guarded by a snake," Bān muttered.

"I don't care. Let him try to stop me, I'll still win, even if it costs me all my limbs. No matter what, Sasuke is coming home," Naruto swore.

The others jumped away, aside from Bān. Kabuto attempted to capture the man, but he was basically shoved back as the Uchiha stepped away. "I don't like delusional fools touching me, I tend to dismember them," he warned.

"To think you'd get captured so quickly, they must have been tracking you in a non-standard way," Kabuto said as he steadied himself, then cut Sai loose, "you don't seem to be a willing captive, nor does this feel like a trap, so I'll trust you for the time being."

"If you two get in my way, all bets are off," Naruto said. This particular Naruto proved to be a clone, the real deal standing overhead, finishing a rasengan. He dropped down, intending to crush Kabuto into the ground this time.

"Useless, both you and that jutsu," Kabuto stated as he kicked Naruto away after stepping back.

"Fights aren't over till one person is down!" Naruto shouted.

"Not the fight, your effort. You are the one person I truly pity in this world, mostly since you don't know how time can change a person. Sasuke is no longer the person you knew," Kabuto explained.

"You can say that again. With that curse, everybody changes," Bān muttered, barely loud enough for Sakura to hear him.

Sai used this time to grab Kabuto from behind, restraining him. "What is this?" Kabuto asked.

"As you said, people change, some far faster than others. Of course, there are things that don't change. Naruto, I want to see what they are, these bonds you speak of," Sai said.

Within a few moments, Kabuto was held down in a tree root binding and a wood clone was staring at him. Sai told Naruto that he believed that staying near Naruto might let him truly know what bonds were, as well as why the bond between himself and his brother couldn't be severed by death. Kabuto warned them twice over, telling them that they had no clue as to who Sasuke really was, that and searching for Sasuke would be dangerous because any of the rooms could hold him or a certain snake eager for a fresh victim. Bān kicked him in the stomach to silence him, then Team Kakashi left.

"We'll split into three teams. Me and Sakura, Naruto and Sai while Bān-san searches on his own. If you run into something, anything, flare your chakra. In the case of Naruto and Sai, the seeds you have inside your bodies will react. As for Bān-san, I have no trouble feeling your chakra," Yamato ordered.

The Uchiha tugged at a torn sleeve, bits of his red armor and purple clothing peeking through the tears. "This mask and these robes were meant to hide my appearance and chakra, now they only hide most of my face. If you sense I'm in battle, avoid the area until things calm down."

"Let's get going and complete our mission," Yamato said, then the group scattered into three, Naruto and Sai following the Uchiha for a few moments before shooting down a wide hallway.

Naruto, after checking the last of this level's rooms, suddenly tripped.

"We've already split up, so you rest here while I go a little ways ahead," Sai suggested.

Naruto painfully lifted himself up. "Not now, I'm too close to getting him back."

Sai walked over and pulled Naruto to a wall and sat him down, figuring they could both use a little downtime. "You and my brother are far too similar, both loud, impatient and unrefined. Even your pen... Well, that doesn't really matter right now." He held his book up, looking at his brother's image, wondering if he would look similar to Naruto if he were still alive. "You and him both gave it your all when it came to tasks, both mundane and serious. You really bring up a lot of memories about him..." Sai suddenly remembered and took out his ink and brush, opening to the center page and drew it before he forgot.

"That's..." Naruto began.

"I remember it now," Sai said, then let Naruto see the picture of the pale haired boy and Sai holding hands, a real smile on his face as he looked at the completed picture. "This is our dream, the very thing I wanted to show him."

"Now, Sai, which side is the one you will stand on?" Orochimaru asked as he walked down the hall, standing a small distance from them. He unleashed a pair of snakes from his sleeves, noting that Sai dodged back with Naruto rather than push him into it. "So Konoha's side..."

"Sai! Go and find Sasuke, I'll keep Orochimaru here," Naruto said as he stood between the Sannin and Sai.

Sai nodded. "I'll find him." And he left.

_[Somewhere else]_

"So this is your lab," Bān said as he walked into the room and started rifling through Orochimaru's collected knowledge. The scrolls had genjutsu covering them, but they were meaningless before the mangekyō sharingan. He quickly scanned through them, using his mangekyō to breeze over them at high speed and permanently commit what they saw to memory. He was searching for specific bits of knowledge.

He found it. "Ah, the Curse Seal... He didn't intend to create them at first, but did it out of necessity... And this, hmm. So that's what goes into them. I can use this information..." Orochimaru really needed to warn Kabuto about leaving important information out. Seems this lab was used by the medic and his master.

He moved on, searching for the man's knowledge of illnesses. What was found was nothing he cared for, mostly the possible weaponization of diseases and such. The man didn't even bother fully deconstructing the viruses and such, making it easier for one to create a cure.

"These fools wasted their time. Had they bothered with healing, just a little bit, the snake would have gotten that brat's bone jutsu," Bān said as he removed his mask for a moment, getting his hair out of his eyes. "Looking any more is a waste of time," he said as he replaced his mask, letting his hair stay outside of the broken section. He grabbed what he needed.

As revenge for Orochimaru and Kabuto's poor choices, he left the room after he filled it with the ever hungry flames of Amaterasu.

_[With Team Kakashi, a few minutes later]_

Orochimaru, as a certain Uchiha would say it, showed off his mastery of 'the ninja art of run' at the sight of Yamato and Sakura, saying he had to deal with Sai. A moment later, Yamato made a grim discovery: a bingo book. This one wasn't standard, since it didn't contain just missing-nin, but also fully active ninja of other villages. All of them were very much anti-Konoha, meaning they were threats that Danzō, the obvious creator of the book, decided were too dangerous to continue living. He quickly found a page with Sasuke on it and came to the conclusion that Sai's real mission the whole time had been the assassination of Sasuke, Orochimaru's most desired future vessel.

When Naruto protested this theory, Yamato told him that it would be beneficial to such a person. By that point, Sakura's worries increased.

The conversation would have continued, but the need to get to Sasuke before Sai took over. They didn't have to go looking, since Sai's talk of bonds angered Sasuke enough that he blew a hole in the roof of the lair, letting sunlight into it. Team Kakashi ran to the site of the blast from two sides, Yamato's group on one side and Uchiha Bān on the other.

Sakura grabbed Sai, intending to make good on her promise of detaching his head from his body.

"That hair, it must be Sakura..."

She turned and looked, seeing him for the first time in almost three years. "Sasuke-kun?"

Naruto wanted to get there as well and forced himself, in spite of his injuries, to get over to his long lost friend. When he did get there, he saw Sasuke, dyed in Orochimaru's colors and looking more sure of himself than ever. "Sasuke..."

"Naruto as well. Is Kakashi here too?" he asked, then noticed the man was not present.

Yamato stepped up. "I'm filling in for Kakashi-senpai, who couldn't be here. Our mission as Team Kakashi is to bring you back to Konoha."

"Team Kakashi..." Sasuke muttered to himself.

Sai lifted his tantō. Sakura reached out to him. "Don't you dare!"

"That's my replacement. He fits far better than I did, with all his dribble about bonds and such. Piling on more weaklings doesn't amount to much," Sasuke analyzed.

Sakura was stunned at how much ice filled his voice. What happened to him over the years?

"While I was sent here on orders to kill Uchiha Sasuke, I no longer see meaning in them and I will think and act freely. Naruto showed me something I lost long ago, something that mattered a great deal to me," Sai said, "I know next to nothing about you, but Naruto and Sakura-san are chasing after you for a good reason that I'd like to know and understand some day. They don't want to let what binds you three together to shatter, so they are willing to do anything to preserve them."

Sasuke sighed. "And here I thought I completely cut myself off from them. The only bond that matters to me now is the one forged from unbreakable hatred and blood. Too many bonds makes one lose focus on what matters."

"If that's all true, then why am I still alive? Why didn't you kill me?" Naruto demanded.

"It wasn't because I couldn't sever my bond with you, I just didn't want to give my brother the pleasure of me submitting to his will to gain power," Sasuke said.

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked.

"There's no point in explaining anything to you. All you need to know is the only thing that saved you was a whim, just like the one that made me kill that cat," and he was suddenly right in front of Naruto, an arm on his shoulder. "If I remember correctly, you wanted to become Hokage. You'd be so much closer to your goal if you didn't bother with bringing me back to that weak village."

"Sasuke-kun, what..." Sakura half asked. She was afraid of him now.

"Because you let bonds cloud your mind, making you forget to pursue your dream, I'll kill you," Sasuke said as his sword came out of its sheath without much noise.

"If I can't save you, I won't ever become a good Hokage," Naruto stated.

"Stop it!" Sakura shouted, suddenly feeling like a useless thirteen year old girl again.

Sai caught Sasuke's sword arm, halting the blade's movement. "A grab, a good choice of defense in this case," the young Uchiha praised.

Naruto jumped to the side, taking Sasuke's other arm with him to immobilize him. Sasuke noted Yamato coming for him, but freed himself and stopped the man by releasing a chidori from his whole body.

"I'll bring you back myself, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted as she ran up. Sasuke turned his blade on her and the only thing that saved her was Yamato taking the blow in her stead, a sheen of lightning coating Sasuke's weapon.

"Wrong choice of defense," Sasuke chastised as he increased the flow of the chidori, stunning the man. "You can feel it, can't you? My sword of Kusanagi cannot be stopped." He turned to Naruto and something happened, something unseen, but it gave Yamato a chance to push the blade back and attempt to capture him. It failed and Sasuke broke the wooden prison, landing on a nearby cliff.

"Sasuke, Orochimaru will never let you get to anywhere near Itachi! He'll take over your body and go into hiding again!" Naruto shouted.

"I'll do anything to kill Itachi, even give my body to that man. All that matters to me is revenge. Even me and Orochimaru working together could never defeat Itachi, but we could if I gave him my body," Sasuke stated.

Yamato was about to take charge, to force the matter, but someone else beat him to it.

"I'll grant your wish and kill you in your brother's stead, suicidal Uchiha."

Sasuke ducked and shot away, avoiding the sword that nearly cut his shoulder open. "You are..."

The attacker rested their sword on their right shoulder. "Akane, Shinku Kariudo. I've come for Orochimaru's head, and yours as well since you truly wish to become his next vessel."

Bān appeared nearby, swinging his wooden blade down on her head, which she blocked with the sheath of her metal sword. "My current mission is bringing that boy back to Konoha, I won't allow you to interfere, Akane," he warned as he increased the pressure.

"Oh, so its you again. I thought you died about forty or so years ago," Akane said with a smirk.

"I'm through with all of you," Sasuke said as he finished some hand seals and lifted his hand to the sky.

Orochimaru appeared, holding Sasuke's arm. "No need for that jutsu, Sasuke-kun." 

"Let go of me," Sasuke growled.

"Sasuke-kun, they are helping us with Akatsuki, whether they like it or not," Kabuto said as he appeared as well.

The two sword fighters decided to put their differences aside to end the lives of the medic and Sannin, each rushing at one. Akane went for Orochimaru, her whip sword already extending as she swung it next to her like a chain while Bān decided that Kabuto would look better as a bloody mess, his sword's edge reshaping itself into a true blade of wood.

Orochimaru was never hard pressed when it came to non-shinobi opponents, but this was Akane he was facing down, a living legend. She had, supposedly, been around since the first Shinobi World War and earned the respect of both the Shodai and Nidaime Hokage, a feat none before and after her achieved. Through pure swordsmanship, she cut down hundreds of shinobi and samurai, making villages fear her to no end and making her the first civilian to be listed as an S-ranked threat. She had cursed herself with immortality to end the wars that took her love from her, not expecting her life to extend into the present day due to strife being ever present in the world of shinobi.

It was this same woman who now pressed him back, preventing him from using jutsu and fighting back. Sure there were holes in her attacks and defense, but they closed up so rapidly that Orochimaru had little doubt that they'd close on his limbs with a sharp edge. She also had a habit of stepping on her blade or closing it up, all to redirect it in deadly arcs.

Kabuto was completely overpowered. His opponent knew what Kabuto was going to do and evaded or stopped his attacks with ease and minimal movement. Kabuto found it extremely difficult to keep his eyes off the Uchiha's, since he didn't like the idea of being subjected to a heavy dose of genjutsu eating away at him. The man's taijutsu was something else as well, being on a level that Orochimaru would avoid. Kabuto really started to worry when the Uchiha caught his arm behind the chakra scalpel and broke the bones in it with a loud snap. Seeing how the man did that, Kabuto realized that the Uchiha wasn't even trying.

Sasuke watched his teacher and the medic fight off the hired killers, waiting for a moment to disable them. He never got the chance.

Akane went for a sweeping cut, aiming for Orochimaru's neck. While the Sannin did dodge, he didn't expect her to shift her foot slightly, a blade popping out of her boot and her driving said blade into the gap between the bones of his knee. She broke it off in his leg and swung her whip sword again, taking one of his hands away. With him off balance, she drove the handle of her sword down hard, cracking his collar bone and knocking him down and back. She swept her sword up, preparing to slice the man open.

Bān got tired of it and broke more of his mask off, revealing most of his mouth as he inhaled. Kabuto only got a moment to start dodging, right before a massive fireball tried to eat him alive.

Sasuke was slightly stunned at their show of power, but knew better.

Akane got it first, a curved kunai slashing her chest open as Kabuto burst from the ground like a rocket. She stared forward in mild shock. "When did he-" she tried to ask, then fell over into a pool of her own spreading blood, a legend destroyed. Or, perhaps, a fake? Bān fared much better, deflecting Orochimaru's Kusanagi so it only clipped his mask and caught on his robes as it surged forward.

Bān's face was no longer a mystery as his hair flowed free, the mask ripped off. Kabuto, Sasuke and Orochimaru visibly paled.

"So now you know," the man stated as he confirmed that the mask was gone.

"It can't be..." Sasuke muttered.

The man tore off the useless robe, letting his vile chakra wash over everyone as his blood red armor was fully revealed.

"Uchiha...Madara," Kabuto gasped. How the hell could he still be alive?

Madara sighed. "This isn't the time for my identity to be revealed. Guess I'll need to improvise... Ah, so that's how it is, huh..." He looked displeased at something.

Now Orochimaru was trying to figure out the best way to escape without dying. Sasuke had to live, Kabuto's survival was preferable, but optional. Even with Kusanagi, this was Uchiha Madara, a man that even Orochimaru wouldn't summon up. Swords were mere twigs compared to his might.

Sakura and the others were quite terrified, the repulsive chakra robbing them of everything except the will to live. Sakura, at the age of twelve, nearly lost her mind to the fear Orochimaru instilled in her. Now at fifteen, Sakura was seriously considering a kunai to her heart as a massive improvement to feeling Madara's evil sweeping over her. Sai discovered a new emotion: fear. Yamato knew that, even with his experience and mokuton, Madara was someone who you ran from if you weren't a Kage. As for Naruto, the fox repeatedly shouted at him to avoid the black haired man at all costs!

Just as Orochimaru decided to start running and blow up his hideout in hopes of severely injuring Madara, he felt his body pitch forward slightly as warmth rolled down his stomach. "What?" he gasped, blood splashing out as it bubbled in his mouth. He looked down to see the tip of Akane's sword sticking out his chest. Before he could react, he felt the blade shift slightly, then he was wracked with incredible pain as it was vibrated in his chest, agitating every organ in his torso. The sword cracked from the unusual vibration.

The blade was yanked out, letting Orochimaru fall down to the ground in a heap of pained flesh. Kabuto tried to strike at the attacker, but Madara and, shockingly enough, the torn body of Akane struck at him, forcing him back. "Who are you?" the medic demanded.

The attacker, a young woman, turned her covered head slightly to regard Kabuto. "Someone who loathes you, bitch. It's time you died," she said.

From what could be seen, she was of an athletic build with a b or small c-cup bust and decent hips. Her hair was long, silky, jet black and easily reached her waist at the back, a short and tattered cloak with a hood covering the top of her head as well as obscuring her face with shadow and rag. She had very fair skin. She was 5 feet tall and must have weighed a slight bit over a hundred pounds. Her clothes were quite a sight, being similar in nature to Akane's but black and the jacket possessing two sleeves that were open to expose her shoulders, the coat ending a bit below her waist in what looked like squared off feathers angling away from her stomach, the back of the jacket slit from a bit above the middle of her lower back and going all the way to where the jacket tails ended, at about ankle level on her. She wore a black cut-off shorts with no markings. Her coat had sheathes directly attached to it, being set on a steep angle and lying a bit above her waist. Her feet were wrapped in dark gray bindings, her heel and the fronts of her feet uncovered. A sword as long as she was tall rested on her back. The blade was a very dull red with a thin blade, no hand guard and a bit of a serrated back edge near the end. It didn't looked forged, it looked like it was shaped from glass or something.

Her face couldn't be seen due to the angle of the hood as well as her raised collar, but you could see that she possessed mangekyō sharingan that were composed of four tomoe set so the 'tails' touched an outer ring while the 'heads' touched an inner ring that was a few millimeters from her pupils. That was odd since sharingan were supposed to be three patterns, not four. She had a headband on her head, her right eye covered by the black material. With all of this, barely a quarter of her face was visible.

Kabuto looked at 'Madara' and 'Akane,' seeing them breaking into a black mist that was drawn into the woman who wounded Orochimaru. "This whole time, you, Uchiha woman, have been manipulating everything from the shadows, haven't you?"

"I'm no Uchiha. I hate them with a passion that even Hell can't extinguish," the woman stated as her long nailed, delicate looking fingers curled around the handle of left blade of her hip sheathed swords.

Kabuto attempted to strike her, so that Sasuke could flee with Orochimaru, but his chakra scalpel cut through empty air. The woman appeared beside him and threw him to the ground. Before he could rise, she slammed her foot down on his lower back, hard.

"Who is that?" Sai asked, figuring someone knew.

Naruto shook his head. "I don't know..."

"Where did you get those eyes?" Sasuke demanded. For a WOMAN that wasn't an Uchiha to have his clans' eyes, it felt like an insult to his very being.

"I was born with them, though I doubt they've been active that long. I've had them since my earliest memories," the mystery woman calmly answered.

"I'll be taking them back now," Sasuke said as he drew his sword again. The woman locked eyes with him and Sasuke was subjected to fear far greater than anything he had ever encountered before. The sheer _hatred_ projected through her eyes made him sweat and shiver. When he was released, with him taking a step back while taking deep breaths, he noticed she now had her red sword in hand.

"I'll seal your jutsu," she said, then was gone in a flash of black chakra. Sasuke barely got his sword up in time to catch her reappearing blade, a few inches from his face. She broke the lock by smacking the hilt of her sword into his face, then swung at him again. Sasuke deflected the downward stroke, only to wince when the blade came back up a second later to slice his arm. He jumped back as she swung her sword, throwing his blood off the blade, then she stabbed, her blade shallowly cutting into his leg.

Sasuke panted slightly, holding his arm and barely being able to stand due to his leg nerves being on fire. _'__One strike quickly following another, and in opposing directions too. __This woman's skill, __she's better than Orochimaru__.'_

"You're...rather fond of critiquing others choices of attacking or defending, are you not?" she suddenly asked.

"Yes, it pays to know when you make a mistake," Sasuke stated.

The woman nodded slightly. "True, you will learn from your failures. As for your performance during our recent exchange..." she paused for a moment, "everything you did was wrong."

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"Attacking me, defending against my attacks, only total avoidance would ensure your continued survival," she answered as she embedded her sword into the ground with a swing, the blade sticking due to its sharpness, drew the damaged whip blade she had given to her Akane clone. Three Orochimaru and two Kabuto appeared, clearly intending to strike at the woman from all possible angles. She figured it wasn't them, just clones or something, but she swung her weapon around hard so it looped around her body like a barricade of blades and gear/chain, then held her free hand in a half ram seal. "Scatter!" she snapped as the core of her weapon broke with a chakra pulse, freed blades flying out to impale what turned out to be a bunch of earth clones. They served their purpose, the three traitors all gathered together.

"We've wasted enough time here, we must be going," Orochimaru said as he waved slightly.

"Sasuke!" Naruto and Sakura called, hoping to delay him.

The woman smirked as she felt the three start to use shunshin. "Doesn't that scar on your side hurt, Uchiha Sasuke?"

Sasuke reacted violently, pushing the sannin and medic away from him. "How did you know about it?" he shouted, his sword held to the woman again. It only started hurting a few hours ago, for the first time since it fully healed.

The woman chuckled a bit. "I figured it would, seeing as how a curse was carried on that hatred filled blade."

Sasuke's eyes widened. "What...do you mean? Who are you?" The woman tore the ragged cloak off her head as she glared at Sasuke. He couldn't believe what he saw. "Impossible! I killed you!" he shouted.

It finally clicked in Sakura's head, but Naruto beat her to it.

"Is that you, Yue?" he asked, not believing his own eyes.

**A/N~**

And the cat came back! Yep, Yue is back. She's also got a much better figure now as well as a new outfit. In case people are wondering, the main inspiration for her clothes was from Sakon no Quasar. I made a few changes, feminizing the outfit and altering it to Yue's preferences.

On other news, next chapter will be the last released for a while. I'll be working on Kyūbi's Kit exclusively, planning that one as I read and write as well as setting everything for this fic up right, such as placing extra bits/mini-arcs into the story, possibly wiping some parts out completely. One thing I will reveal is this: a reunion between Yue and Ino.

And if I made any mistakes, I'll fix them later.

**Character Intro-**

Name: Uchiha Bān

Race: Clone (shadow clone? Henge)

Age: Unknown

Weapons: wooden sword

Armor: Shinobi armor (ancient)

Abilities-

Sharingan

Fire release

Wood release

Appearance: A perfect replica of Uchiha Madara, even down to his clothing and fighting style.

History: A clone Yue created and used as a puppet for her plans. Until 'Akane' was fatally injured, Bān truly believed he was the real Madara, suggesting that Yue used her mangekyō to influence its thoughts. As to how Yue was able to fully and accurately recreate Madara, right down to his voice, the sensation of his chakra and combat methods is unknown, since nobody alive knows how he sounded or fought.

It is believed that Yue adopted this form while posing as the masked mercenary.

Name: Akane

Race: Human (shadow cloned and henged into by Yue)

Age: Unknown

Weapons: A katana (whip blade in Yue's case)

Armor: None

Abilities-

Master swordswoman

Appearance: See the last chapter.

History: The real Akane was roughly twenty six years old when the first shinobi world war broke out and was seen during both the following wars, being the exact same age. It is true that her skill was high enough to match and, quite often, exceed that of many shinobi, which resulted in her killed well over a hundred ninja during the first war.

As for Yue's time as Akane, it is unknown what was her and what was the real Akane, other than her initial encounter with Naruto in Konoha. Judging by that time, Yue is more than capable of skilled tactical evasion without the use of chakra.

**Responses-**

**The Keeper of Worlds:** You were right to put "new" addition when it came to Bān. The Crimson HUNTRESS, Akane, will be brought into far more detail later on.

**Sky Zephyrus:** According to this chapter, those two were pawns. Actually, Akane plays a much larger role later on. 615... Haven't read it, but I'm guessing its when Sakura turned that guy down and implied she still loved Sasuke. Yeah, she's turned into one of those stupid heroines that doesn't have a clue when a guy has no interest in her. Another interesting note is that Sakura, if I remember correctly, wasn't one of the people 'Kyūbi enhanced' by Naruto.

And in this fic, as Yamato tried to point out before Naruto ruined it all, Sakura already does have feelings for Naruto, they're just buried.

**Dragonsatan:** Who would want to rape Orochimaru? Well, Bān 'helped' Orochimaru a bit during that fight.

**DarkLordK:** Stay curious, since more on her will be revealed later.

**Narutokurosaki:** For that chapter, and episode in the anime if I remember correctly, Orochimaru envisioned himself being obliterated by the sheer killing intent and power of the Kyūbi. It is similar to what Orochimaru did to Sasuke and Sakura when he marked the little prick. (BTW, did I mentioned I despise Sasuke?)

**hhh:** ….Gooby?

**Yuri-Hime-Chan:** Combination of factors. While Naruto is strong, the nine-tails is much more powerful. This time around, it was Naruto's lack of strength in the past as well as Orochimaru blaming Yue's 'death' on Naruto. And I do think that Jiraiya tried to sway Naruto from chasing Sasuke, but as we all know, even Jiraiya himself can't leave things alone when it involves Orochimaru. I'm pretty sure that, had he not been more concerned about Akatsuki, he would have taken Yamato's place as Team Kakashi's captain.

**Kidloco:** Message decoded. First, Akane isn't a hunter-nin, she's not even a ninja, the real one anyway. The Uchiha, well, you know now.

**RocketShippingFan:** While that little idea does work, and has been used, and Sakura is delusional or she has an issue. Think about it, what teenage girl would continue to love someone who tried to KILL them? Sasuke also, generally, treated her as a bother and, after getting the curse seal, treated her like garbage or a target. She's also been mentored by Tsunade, who knows what it's like to get your heart crushed, and she's still after Sasuke is spite of everything that he's done.

But that doesn't matter because Sakura will still refuse that guy's letter, but she will be thinking of a certain knucklehead ninja instead. In this fic at least.

**Super Saiyan Haruno Sakura:** Hmm, Sasuke's never been good enough to kill a strong ninja, they just kill themselves or he runs away. (actual fact, look it up)

**NaruSaku fan 100:** Yamato tried to clue Sakura into her own feelings, but Naruto just keeps ruining the moment! (damn baka!) I need someone else to clue her in now... Hmm, I think I know who.

**NaruSaku fan 55:** First of all, why is everyone calling her 'Yui?' It is Yue, Chinese for moon and a masculine name. Sakura's feelings for Sasuke are slightly diminished, but not gone. She knows he's violent and sees nothing in killing a 'friend.' This is part of what changes her heart later on.

And while on Yui, I do like the name. In fact, Yui is the name of my favorite To-Love-Ru character, the ever tsundere and 'shameless!' shouting Kotegawa Yui.

**Romanomanette:** Thanks for the praise, but there are far better fics here, most of which are dead now due to the M-rating scare. Wait until you see how Yue is now.

**Silentlinkmit339:** A plot twist following another plot twist, which will probably be followed by another. The direction of this fic... Hmm, you'll have to wait and see.


	30. Kitty-cat claws and the burden of a Kage

Chapter 30: Kitty-cat claws and the burden of the Kage

**Quick Note: Yue peppers her speech with traditional Chinese, mostly just greetings. If it's anything new, I'll put it in the translation area. I'll try to limit how much she does that. Also, prepare for a long chapter, which will probably NEVER happen again! (Proofing it was a bitch!) I also apologize in advance for mistakes, I'll fix them later.**

**Disclaimer: I own Kazeneko Yue, the cat eared OC of this fic, and a number of jutsu….I own nothing else!**

The girl flattened her collar out, revealing the telltale seal on her left cheek. It was Yue, no question about it. The cat ears on top of her head and the tail that swung out through the slit in the back of her coat was just more proof on top of proof, all adorned with very light jewelry. Her scar marked hair had lightened, becoming an almost white silver-blonde color. There were questions involved now, such as where she got mangekyō, what was wrong with her right eye and what was that glass-like sword she carried?

She nodded her head slightly, messy bangs falling into her eyes slightly. "Nǐ hǎo, Naruto, Sakura." Her voice was no longer accompanied by a slightly angry sounding growl, but an almost... sensual purr that men liked to hear and considered hot or sexy, the pervs. (BTW, this is Sakura's observation)

"Where have you been? Why didn't you come home?" Sakura asked. Yue had to know that many people were saddened when they thought she had died. Now that she thought about it, that old drunk had been right all along!

Sasuke didn't even give Yue a chance to answer, just rushed at her with his sword at the ready. Yue flicked her blade at his, disarming him and, with the same motion, tossed her sword into the ground so it stuck up in waiting for her to retrieve it. Her left hand flashed up at Sasuke, who hadn't been able to stop himself, and seized his neck with a grip that obviously cut off his air supply, since he grabbed at her wrist and hit them to free himself as his face became pale. Yue forced him onto his knees and coldly glared into his eyes. "Pathetic as always, Sasuke..."

_'That sword is sharp, more than sharp enough to stand when at such an angle,'_ Sai thought, looking at the red blade that Yue had thrown point first into the ground. It was at a forty degree angle and normally, with only an inch and a half of the blade in the ground, it would have fallen over from its own weight.

Yue signaled to some unseen people with a pulse of chakra, much like Kage did to summon their ANBU. Within a few seconds, the other two masked ninja arrived on either side, the taller one on her left while the shorter stood to her right. "I was killed off by this weak little bastard. I was revived almost six months later and I didn't return because I figured it was better that Konoha managed to get rid of me. I also, as you can see, have others who need me outside of Konoha," Yue said. After she finished talking, she lifted the now unconscious Sasuke and threw him back towards Orochimaru and Kabuto.

"Yue-kun... To implant mangekyō sharingan. Seeing that band covering your right eye makes me believe that you can only handle one at a time, yes?" Orochimaru asked, his body mostly recovered.

"So you know about these eyes. Well, seeing as how you used to be in Akatsuki with Itachi-senpai, it isn't much of a surprise to me. After all, Sasuke is nothing more than your safe option, since you failed," Yue said.

"Kukukuku. Unlike the rest of Konoha, I didn't remain ignorant of the Uchiha clan's true power," Orochimaru said with a grin. He also knew why Yue called Itachi 'senpai.' If Sasuke knew, heh, things would be so much easier.

Yue smirked, amusement flashing in her eye. "What of the Ruuko?"

"W-what?" Orochimaru asked, his smile falling.

Yue closed her eye. "Hmph. I thought so. The Ruuko were great at hiding their power," she stated, opening her uncovered eye, an intense orange iris glaring at the pale man, "these are my own eyes, not implants. The Ruuko clan also has the ability to awaken sharingan, though it is rarer than with the Uchiha. Well, that's not all they had, but it's all you need to know at the moment."

Kabuto frowned. "So does this mean that your speed..."

Yue nodded. "Yes, it is actually higher than you think. In fact, me and Lee should have both surpassed normal human limits, though I'm faster than he is for obvious reasons."

Kabuto decided that Yue was far too dangerous and presented a major threat to Orochimaru's plans. He got up, activated his chakra scalpels and rushed at Yue, intent on cutting her major muscles apart so she'd still serve as experimental material.

Yue dogded the man's attack and hit him with a full body check, making him stumble back a good eight yards before he fell over. "Ne-nyanya~" Yue meowed...or maybe she was laughing, cutely while she held her hands up like they were paws.

_'She's making fun of him,'_ Naruto thought, recognizing the tactic. Yue was trying to get Kabuto mad so that she could take advantage of his anger induced mistakes. Naruto wondered, at this moment, why Yue now wore jewelry. He knew that she had a necklace under her clothes in the past and she still had it now, but he didn't know she was interested in wearing more. She had a ring on her tail, all four ears adorned with different styles of earrings. Her right cat ear had a simple silver ring on it, some sort of engraving on it. Yue's left cat ear had a tag on it, sort of like the ones the Nara put on their deer's ears. Yue's human ears each had a small, simple stud with a red jewel in it. Then, for an odd reason, Naruto wondered how cute Sakura would look with earrings. Green ones would match her eyes. No, he had to keep his head in reality!

Kabuto obviously saw through Yue's ploy as he stood up, dusted his clothes a bit, then fixed his glasses. "Despite your skill and potential, it seems you can't expect much from an emotionally stunted runt."

"Unyaaa~ Is that the whining of a weakling? You used to be as strong as Kakashi, but even he outclassed you and he's almost at his peak. Then again, you were outclassed by Naruto three years ago. I guess Orochimaru only keeps you around for information, much like a dusty old textbook. Ah, I forgot that you're a medic as well, so that makes you a dusty medical book," Yue taunted.

That got Kabuto, though it was more of a prideful rage that filled his eyes. "I don't know what Orochimaru-sama sees in you, but I'll find out when I cut you open, filthy runt!" he shouted as he rushed forward.

Yue didn't move an inch as six shadow clones appeared beside her. She didn't even give them a signal, they just moved on their own. Kabuto was struck from multiple angles repeatedly, kicked into the air, his arms were pulled to the sides as painfully as possible so he couldn't defend himself, then he driven into the ground with a pair of stage two rasengan, which Yue referred to as 'Rasen.' Before he could get up, the real Yue stood near his right leg and drove her red sword into said leg's thigh, but only three inches pierced his flesh.

Yue electrified the red blade, getting a gasp of pain from the man as the crimson power flowed into him. "This is as far as you can go, Yakushi Kabuto. I don't know if you were ever called a genius, but it never applied to combat roles. This is your limit, this is as powerful as you'll ever be without the ability to surpass your limitations. The only thing you have left to look forward to is a life in the shadow of others," she stated, then pulled the sword out of the medic.

"You have changed a lot, Yue-kun" Orochimaru stated as he stood up.

"Unnatural growth, isn't it? Well, I'm not alone in the ability to grow the way I did. Well, physically, I am the only one capable of it. As a ninja, you should keep an eye on a certain idiot ninja we all know," Yue said, then opened her eye to reveal her sharingan again, "these also interest you, don't they?"

Orochimaru smiled. "Of course, though I wonder if I can take over a person with mangekyō. I failed once before, but I think I'm more prepared this time."

"These aren't my mangekyō, just regular sharingan. The Ruuko have slightly different sharingan, in appearance and ability. The Ruuko sharingan is superior and inferior at the same time. Tracking is easier, but copying isn't, not unless it's taijutsu or kenjutsu," Yue stated.

_'So my experimental curse seal isn't a total waste,'_ Orochimaru thought. Now if it worked properly, he'd modify Sasuke's, get the wood release from the experiment and then he would become even more powerful than he could have imagined. At this rate, he'd get _that man's_ power as well.

Sasuke, having woke up, appeared behind Yue with his hand moving forward. Yue spun, performing a roulette to Sasuke's surprise chidori that he activated a moment before impact. When Sasuke went by her, she drove an elbow between his shoulder blades to knock him forward. "And now a song I was taught that I think will annoy Sasuke," Yue announced, a carefree smile on her face.

_'She really likes that tactic...'_ Naruto thought, sweat dropping.

"Nyan, nyan, nyan, nyan. Nǐ hǎo nyan!" Yue started, pawing at the air to one side, then the next, all while hopping slightly. She then went on with the song, spinning once and holding her arms out like she wanted a hug, then repeated it all from the beginning.

_'What in the world...'_ Sakura thought, sweat running down her neck at the antics of her once temporary sensei.

Sasuke wasn't drawn in by Yue's attempt to anger him, he just retrieved his sword, flicked the dirt off it, then sheathed it. "Finished, baka-neko?" he asked.

Yue stopped in mid pawing, looked over at Sasuke, then vanished in a flit of black flame. Before anyone could react, she appeared right in front of Sasuke, red blade held in her left hand and held back, ready to bifurcate the teen before her. Sasuke barely managed to draw his sword in time, only blocking the sword edge and still taking the full power of the blow, sending him sprawling off a good three feet.

"And I wanted to enjoy our reunion! Damn Uchiha bastard. Besides, what are you trying to do, kill me again? That backfired. You killing me is what made me so much stronger, what gave me powers this world never should see. Then again, I highly doubt you'd be able to kill me in a straight up fight when I'm uninjured," Yue growled, her eyes full of rage, then twirled her blade so it was held in a reverse grip as she shed herself of hatred, "hey imōto! Why don't you say hi to old friends, former enemies and an emo bastard?"

The spear user, the taller of Yue's companions, who had both stepped back to avoid the fight, stuck her spear into the ground. She pulled the robe open and flipped the hood/mask back, then threw the whole outfit aside. Underneath, she was dressed in a very dark red shirt, an off white blazer with short sleeves, black shorts that went to just above her knees and black sandals on her feet. Her dark pink hair hanging almost down to her waist, brown eyes glaring at the sannin through her messy bangs.

"My, my. I thought I gave you your final order three years ago, Tayuya. Everyone in Oto knows that you are supposed to die after completing your final mission," Orochimaru said.

The young woman, Tayuya turned from the sannin to Yue. "Nee-san, can you please kill him already? You'd be doing the world and all under aged boys a huge favor."

"Remember that his last body was that of a young woman, and this one is that of a young man. I don't think he has a preference," Yue stated.

That didn't sit well with Orochimaru. "How do you know of my bodies, Yue-kun?"

Yue pulled off the headband that covered her right eye, showing that it wasn't injured and was also a fully matured sharingan. "I had a look at your lab and everything in it. I got angry because you didn't have anything I wanted, so I used my right mangekyō to burn it all up. Since I already used my right eye, I decided to seal it for a while to prevent the temptation of burning things again. I did use my sharingan abilities absorb what was interesting to me before I did that. You know that these eyes can't unsee anything, right?"

"So you're at ease because you possess the Amaterasu," Orochimaru guessed.

"No, I'm at ease because nobody, other than my allies, is in top fighting form. Those who were combat ready, I attacked and weakened. Naruto is still worn down from his transformation. Sakura is still wounded from that event. Sai's ink beasts are useless against me and his kenjutsu is weaker than my own. Yamato is wounded. Kabuto is weak. And you, Orochimaru, are weakened due to your own jutsu and the damage me and the Sandaime dealt to you, both in the past and present," Yue stated. _'Wa__i__t a second... I haven't seen him use a proper ninjutsu since the Sandaime destroyed one of his arms. I know I destroyed the soul of one arm, but could it have had an affect on his ninjutsu? I should have sent a shadow clone to find his personal room...'_

Orochimaru didn't bother telling her that he still wasn't done with her and, if need be, he'd kill everyone here aside from Sasuke to finish his experiments. "And what of Sasuke-kun?" Orochimaru asked.

"What of Sasuke? He never was and never will be a threat to me. His skill with the sharingan is lacking, his speed is below mine, as are his chakra reserves. His ability with the sword pales in the face of mine and, saddest of all, his raiton will never match my own. The only thing he beats me in is popularity with women," Yue listed off, grumbling at the last one.

"You don't know what I can do! If I wanted to, I could incinerate everyone here!" Sasuke shouted.

"Sasuke, I think its safe to say that I'm one of the most powerful living raiton users, meaning I'm FAR superior to you!" Yue snapped.

Sasuke took a step forward. "You lying little-"

CRACK! A lightning bolt struck the ground between Sasuke and Yue, leaving a singed patch of grass. It had come from the cloudless sky.

"As you have probably guessed, I don't need clouds because I can control positive lightning, real lightning, and my raiton are also positive lightning. My power is greater than your inferior chakra based lightning," Yue said, her hand held out. _'Let's just hope he doesn't realize I can't __call a__ bolt strong enough to kill without causing storm clouds to form, __and that can take a while to do.__'_

"Kukuku, very interesting Yue-kun. I think we've seen enough for now, right Sasuke-kun?" Orochimaru asked.

Sasuke glared at the man. "I've decided that this will be Naruto's last day. And I sent that cat to her grave once, I'll do it again."

Orochimaru placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "Now, now, Sasuke-kun. You need to master patience and strategy. If we are patient, and direct our foes properly, the path to killing Itachi will open up before you. Naruto-kun, his team and Yue-kun are all powerful enough to kill Akatsuki, so we let them do it for you. No need risking your life against those murderers while trying to exact your revenge."

"The only one in Akatsuki I'd kill would be that idiot I met recently, Deidara. I'm not fond of dying, so I'll do as you cowards do and avoid Akatsuki," Yue said. "Can I have some tips on hiding like a little bitch, Orochimaru? After all, you are the expert on the subject." Tayuya chuckled a bit at that.

Orochimaru also chuckled, liking that Yue still had that bite to her. "Oh but you will go against Akatsuki, because you, Naruto-kun, the remaining jinchūriki and all of Konoha are my pawns. I'm the White Snake King and you will all move as I will it."

Yue lifted her hand up, bright white lightning furiously dancing on it, then drove it into the ground to shatter enough of the ground to make even Sakura pale. "You think I'm a pet, that you're my master? Nobody holds my chains anymore, I don't need a master anymore! If you or anyone else thinks they can take my will from me, then I will send them to Hell on the tip of my lightning, screaming the whole way down!"

"Seems I've stayed here for too long, I think it is time we leave," Orochimaru said as Kabuto and Sasuke moved to either side of him. They left in a flame shunshin.

Naruto and Sakura would have taken a moment to look Yue over and think of a way to make her return with them, but the girl turned on them with her sharingan blazing. "Wha-" Sakura gasped.

Yue's sword flashed, leaving a twisted ribbon of red in front of her. Several sparks leapt from the afterimage, kunai and shuriken appearing and falling to the ground after being deflected. She swung her sword down, then she swung it once before her in a deadly arc as it cut a couple ink lions apart. "Your intents are obvious, your techniques pathetic. If that's the best you can muster, I feel that the future of Konoha is bleak," Yue said.

"Yamato-taicho! Sai! Why did you attack her?" Sakura shouted.

Yamato wondered which of his mokuton would be strong enough to capture restrain Yue. "I was just trying to disable her movements so we could bring her back, which is probably what you and Naruto want, right?"

Naruto nodded. "Of course we want her back. She's our friend and mentor. If I had known she was alive all this time, I'd have pestered Ero-sennin to look for her rather than let him peep all the time."

"She's right though, my ink jutsu are probably unable to affect her," Sai stated, "Naruto, Sakura-san, I may need to actually hurt her with taijutsu and my tantō if I am to help bring her back. Please don't decapitate me."

Sakura adjusted her gloves. "Don't worry Sai, a few good knocks to the head should fix her up. Thinking she can just run off when she wants to, naughty Yue-chan-sensei," Yue said.

The masked medic blushed hard, though none could see it. _'Y-Yue-chan-sensei? That's too cute!'_

"Nee-san... What's it feel like for a younger girl to add '-chan' to the end of your name?" Tayuya asked.

Yue thought for a few moments, "I think I've awakened to a new sensation," she said with a cocky, Anko-like grin and a very slight blush.

"Yue, I will bring you home!" Naruto promised as he summoned a pair of clones.

"Shukujo-sama, should I undo the seal tag?" the medic asked. When Yue nodded, the woman reached over to Yue's neck, to a tag that covered the curse seal that had been branded on her over three years ago.

Yamato realized that Yue's chakra must be sealed off, to some degree. "No matter what you do, we will cap-"

The moment the seal tag was removed, all the optimism the group had was drained away. The chakra they had felt from 'Madara' had been nothing at all. Yue's chakra felt even rougher and colder and, worst of all, heavier. Sakura was knocked onto her hands and knees, panting while sweating hard.

_'Wh-what is this?! Her chakra shouldn't be this strong or dense!'_ Yamato thought. At most, she should have the chakra levels near that of ANBU's skilled operatives, but the girl's chakra exceeded that. Had she stayed in Konoha and joined ANBU, she'd easily be the strongest ANBU captain in terms of chakra reserves alone.

"This is...like the fox's!" Naruto gasped as his clones were forcibly dispersed from Yue's chakra. The chakra felt more hate filled than the fox's chakra had ever felt when Naruto used it, or those times he could remember using it, though it was much weaker. Was it because Yue was part demon? Sasuke had been strong, but Yue was far stronger.

"Nee-san! Reel it in a bit!" Tayuya shouted, her curse seal throbbing and haphazardly spreading from the influx of Yue's chakra.

Yue closed her eyes and the chakra drastically weakened as she took reign of her chakra flow. "The seal needs some work still-" Yue said as she turned to her medic, but the woman silenced her before she could say any more than that.

"Shukujo-sama, the seal is perfect, you're chakra is just too strong for it," the medic stated, "and please, don't use my real name. Just call me Mana."

Yue found it ironic that the young woman would use the term 'Mana' as an alias, since it meant 'True Name' to those with demon blood. "Fine, but if a fight breaks out, both of you will step back. And stop calling me 'Skukujo-sama,' it bothers me and I'm no lady."

"But nee-san!" Tayuya protested.

"You will stay back!" Yue said, harder this time. When the two relaxed, Yue sighed. "This is for your own good. I can't allow my imōto and loyal friend to be harmed, not while I can prevent it. This is a fight that involves me alone." With Team Kakashi's resolve united and the four prepared to fight, Yue yanked her sword out of the ground and pointed it at them. "You move first. As soon as that blade is gone, I'll sheathe my sword," she said.

Sai moved forward, accompanied by a few ink lions and birds. Using them as a distraction, Sakura and Naruto managed to get on either side of their former teammate. While Naruto created a number of shadow clones to assist him, Sakura smashed the ground to throw Yue's balance off. With that done, Yamato caused tree roots to sprout and further shake Yue's footing, as well as surround her in a twisted tower of roots and rubble that her blade couldn't cut due to her having no room to wind up for a swing. Naruto had his clones jump down the tube, force the girl to the ground and restrain her, though it still cost him twelve shadow clones.

"Capture successful," Yamato stated as he made the trees atrophy, then placed wood bindings around Yue's arms and torso.

Sakura felt something was off. "This was too easy..."

Naruto looked around, confused. "Hey, where's her sword?"

Sai got the answer, in the form of said sword coming out the front of his right bicep, only going through the muscle. "Really now, did you think my sharingan were weak like Sasuke's? I saw everything coming at me from a mile away," Yue said as she electrified her sword, making Sai grunt in pain, the three exposed inches of the blade sticking out the front of Sai's arm sparking with red electricity. "Like it? Unlike Sasuke, who uses a metal blade, this sword is special. I believe Naruto and Sakura know this blade well, though it is shaped very differently now. How about it, Sakura, Naruto, do you like Kubikirihōchō's new look?"

Naruto couldn't believe it. In terms of length, it matched Zabuza's sword, but it was completely different. "That can't be it. That sword is far too small," he stated.

"Well, Sasuke and Kabuto did break it down to just a handle. Did you know that it can fix itself? All you have to do is cut someone apart, then Kubikirihōchō will drink their blood and reform itself. Seems my half demon blood was a special treat to it and caused a bit of a power up and reshape it," Yue explained, "and since it is mostly made from the blood I lost three years ago, it seems to accept my lighting better than other weapons."

Sai managed to pull himself off the sword, though the way he held his arm told everyone that he had just lost most of the use of his arm until it healed. As Yue promised, she put the red sword onto her back again and assumed a new taijutsu stance, one that had a bit of white electrical power arcing off her forearms and lower legs.

"I don't think I need to say anything, but avoid her hands and feet," Yamato ordered.

The four man team went to attack, but Yue jumped back, then vanished in a burst of white lightning. Despite the warning, Sakura was struck in the stomach with an electrified kick when Yue appeared half a foot away, knocking the pink haired kunoichi down and out of the fight for a bit. Sai swung his tantō with his bad arm, the somewhat sloppy blow missing Yue when she leaned back. She continued with the motion, her foot coming up to hit Sai in his wounded arm as the girl rolled back into a handstand. Naruto tried to get at her while she was balanced on her hands, but Yue proved to be adept in this position as well and managed to clip him in the cheek with a heel during a spin.

Yue returned to her regular stance, looking bored. "This is sad, such weak teamwork. If only you four could work together seamlessly, you'd have caught me already," she muttered.

"We've only been a team for a few days, but we already forced you to use a shadow clone," Sakura stated.

"No, I used that shadow clone to see how skilled you guys were. Individually, you're all highly skilled, but you are a fairly weak team when all together," Yue said, "Yamato is adjusting his power as much as possible, but he's still tends to move too quickly, ruining the rhythm of the team's attacks. Sai's style is good, and his ink beasts are a great distraction, but I feel and see that he is overly sure of his abilities, which makes him rash and tend to lose track of his teammates. As for Sakura and Naruto, a fairly seamless blend of their abilities, but Sakura's new found...distance from Naruto is most troubling. As for Naruto, he needs to stop pulling away from others. If-"

And it was at this moment that the real Yamato finished his jutsu. **"****Suirō no Jutsu,"** he said as he held his hand out, surrounding Yue in an orb of water. "Naruto, Sakura! Restrain her arms and legs," Yamato ordered. When that was done, he waited a bit for Yue to weaken more, then released her from the water prison. With the girl tired out due to lack of oxygen, as well as being held down, Yamato decided to seal off her movements for a while and held her in a wooden prison, similar to the one he'd used on the Kyūbi controlled Naruto not too long ago, while he got out all the chakra sealing braces and locks. He'd need them for her since she was a high level ninja.

"Yue..." Naruto muttered, not liking to see his friend in such a pitiful state.

"Yue-sama!" the masked medic shouted, though she couldn't go forward because of Tayuya holding her back. The two of them would surrender if Yue gave the order, was captured or killed.

"So it's come down to this, getting sealed so much that it takes a week for my chakra flow to return to normal again. Didn't Konoha get enough of this when I was locked in ANBU dark levels for nearly two years?" Yue asked.

Sakura was horrified. ANBU dark levels are considered an archaic and brutal type of prison that shouldn't legally exist anymore, but did anyway. The dark levels were the place where, when they told you that you'd never see light again, they weren't kidding. You were locked in a cell, your chakra completely sealed off with braces and seals scrawled on your body, one or two of which probably silenced you, and there was absolutely no light. The guards were either skilled Hyūga, knew the layout by heart or used special means to see in the dark. Add to it the rumor that, if you died there, they'd leave your ashes to serve the rest of your sentence, the place was horrible and no place for someone who hadn't even properly started puberty at the time.

If there was a Hell, the ANBU dark levels were a close second.

"At the time, it was believed that you ruthlessly murdered your teammate. We were wrong at the time and I can assure you that you won't be going back there," Yamato said as he pulled out the hand sealing bindings. Now he'd have to find the scroll that contained the torso restraints.

"Oh, so I'll be executed this time? Well, I died once already, though it wasn't from a beheading. I wonder if I can come back after losing my head?" Yue wondered aloud.

"You could never have died, since you are here and alive," Sai noted.

"I died three years ago when Sasuke stabbed me in the chest. I actually bled to death. Did you know that, ironically, my last thoughts were of a girl who will never care about me?" Yue asked.

"Yue, Ino was torn apart by your death. She blamed herself for it all this time," Sakura said.

Yue looked down. "Kěxiào... I didn't take you for a liar, Sakura. She just wants Sasuke back, and I'll do that later on, when the fight won't be an embarrassment to the both of us."

"I'm not lying!" Sakura insisted, "Ino really did suffer for three years, thinking you were killed trying to do something for her!"

"That's true, though I should have kept my strength up better," Yue said. After a small pause, she looked down at the ground. "Can I tell you guys a secret?"

"What?" Naruto asked, hoping the girl would say that she wanted to go home.

Yue grinned wickedly. "These bindings aren't strong enough to hold me down," she said as her skin started to darken, her hair growing longer and wild. Four black arms with red streaks seized the wood bindings and started twisting and squeezing them apart, freeing the altered ninja. With her body free, Yue opened her eyes and regarded her former teammate's with her curse seal altered eyes. _**"**__**I honestly didn't think I'd need my curse seal today."**_

"That's-That's just like Sasuke!" Naruto gasped.

Sakura turned to Naruto, pale and sweating with shock. "What? Sasuke-kun can...do that too?"

"_**Of course he can, though his looks more evil than mine. But damn, I need to find some reagents to modify my curse seal the way I want to. Severing my tie to that pathetic snake is more than I can ask for right now,"**_ Yue stated.

"Modify a curse seal?" Sakura muttered. She had heard of them, such as the one used by the Hyūga, but this one was completely different. Curse seals were originally designed to restrain people, to force them under the will of another. This curse seal, like Sasuke's, appeared to empower the branded victim, which was a complete counter to the original purpose of this branch of ninjutsu.

"Nee-san has already modified my seal once, since it was a simple one. This bitchy attitude is all me now, no more being that bastard snake's pawn," Tayuya stated.

"But Yue-sama's seal is different, it's one of a kind. She needed to learn about all of Orochimaru's curse seals before she even attempted to tamper with her own," Mana said.

Yue grinned, then her chakra arms shot out and grabbed each member of Team Kakashi, the fingers lengthening so they could completely surround the four ninja. _**"Like it? My curse seal is almost purely chakra based, that allows me to do some fun things like binding people with my claws. **__**As you've seen, they're quite quick too.**__**"**_

Yamato tried to mold chakra so he could escape, but found that he started getting drained the moment he tried. "How?" he gasped.

"Yue-sama's seal also allows her to sap chakra from those she snares. Through training, she can now drain through only one arm and not the others if she chooses to, like she did at first," Mana stated.

"_**I just want to talk a bit, don't make me drain your chakra to the nub,"**_ Yue said. When nobody tried to mold chakra or twist out of her grasp, she relaxed the grips slightly, allowing them to breathe freely. _**"I want to talk to Naruto the most out of everyone here,"**_ she said as she looked to him.

"What is it?" Naruto asked. He didn't feel threatened by her, since she had warned him about Akatsuki tracking jinchūriki. If she had intended to kill him, he'd have been killed already.

Yue sighed, knowing she was about to get into an argument. _**"Ignore what Yamato said earlier about the Kyūbi."**_

"What are you saying? Naruto doesn't need the fox," Yamato said.

Yue, in her anger, drew a portion of chakra from all four of them. _**"His chakra protecting him isn't a sign to run from the fox's power, but to use it. You heard Chiyo-sama: jinchūriki are military power. While I don't wholly agree with that, I do know that jinchūriki are more powerful than normal ninja. I've run into three of them before and that's how I can 'tame' the bijū that are within jinchūriki with my sharingan,"**_ Yue said.

"Naruto-" Yamato started.

"_**Will be killed by Akatsuki at this rate!"**_ Yue snapped, cutting the man off, **_"look at him! He struggled against me and the only member of Akatsuki I think I could beat is that weak ass art nut Deidara! Akatsuki aren't regular ninja, they're more like demons. Everyone knows they have Hoshigaki Kisame, the Tailess Tailed Beast, as well as Uchiha Itachi, the Kin Slayer. Do you honestly believe that, even with assistance from you and Kakashi, he's safe from them as he is now? If they wanted to, they'd crush Konoha in a second and drag Naruto away while you were all on the verge of death!"_**

Yamato remained silent, knowing that what Yue said was true. If Itachi and Kisame wanted to, all of Konoha would fall before them. No matter how much the Hyūga said it, they had been inferior to the Uchiha clan right up to the night they were destroyed. If Itachi wanted to, he could wipe out all the clans Konoha had with little trouble. Kisame, he was a different story altogether. "That's true, but Naruto can become stronger without the Kyūbi. He also has all his friends," Yamato said.

Yue glared at Yamato with her sharingan. When her eyes locked with the ANBU's, his widened and he took very shallow breaths as some sweat trickled down the side of his face, being unable to blink or look away. The whole time this happened, Yue's eyes glowed like a dull fire red, then faded when she was done with him.

Yamato gasped hard, sucking in air like a nearly drowned man. _'What was that? Genjutsu? I don't know what it was, but I wish I could unsee it!"_ he thought as he breathing started returning to normal. Unknown to him, Sai had experienced it not too long ago with Sasuke, albeit at a much lower level.

"_**That is a taste of the power of the sharingan, a parlor trick to Itachi-senpai. That's what I'm going to teach Sasuke before he returns to Konoha: fear. To know fear is to be humbled, I believe someone once said. If not, then I can be quoted throughout the ages,"**_ Yue said, then looked at Sakura, **_"and you need to learn something as well."_**

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked. Yue wasn't making any sense anymore.

"_**I'm not good at this, so bear with me,"**_ Yue said as she closed her eyes, then opened her left eye and aimed an illusion at Sakura, along with a, _**"Tsukuyomi..."**_

The only hint Sakura had to the illusion hitting her was the blood that started to flow from Yue's left eye, then she was completely caught.

_[Inside Yue's Tsukuyomi]_

Sakura was held up by wires and chains connected to rib-like pillars of bone, her body suspended almost like it was crucified. The ground appeared to be covered in a thick layer of ash while the black sky was filled with stormy clouds that looked like flowing blood, Yue's regular sharingan imprinted on the low hanging, bone white moon. Other than that, everything was normal. The world wasn't black and white like Kakashi had described, it was just barren and dead. Sakura was also normally colored, though the red was disturbingly vibrant.

"Sorry about the...accommodations, but I highly doubt a Tsukuyomi allows the victim to be unbound," Yue said as she walked into view.

The hanyō was wearing a long black and red robe with white trim, a hooded cloak over her head with her cat ears poking through it. A fur sleeve with a large, crystal adorned claw worn on her right arm. Her left arm had some simple armlets, ones with rubies on it. There was also a necklace around her neck, with what looked like a couple tomoe hanging on it. Due to the almost tribal design of the outfit and its length, it almost seemed like Yue was gliding when she walked.

"Interesting, isn't it? I need to wear this on occasion, a sort of official or formal wear, well, more traditional. What's most interesting is that I always wear it here in my Tsukuyomi," Yue said.

"Why did you trap me in genjutsu? I'm not telling you anything," Sakura said.

Yue waved it off. "I don't need to question you, since I know pretty much everything that's happened since you guys returned to Konoha after killing Sasori. No, what I brought you here for was a few moments of undisturbed time to talk. Well, it will be a moment in reality, but a while in here. I won't draw out the full power of the Tsukuyomi, not this time at least."

Sakura couldn't believe that there was a genjutsu this powerful. She remembered how Kakashi said it was, how only an Uchiha could break free from it and she now knew why. Rather than a simple illusion, it was more like Yue had constructed an artificial world using chakra and planted it inside Sakura's head, binding their personalities in it.

"I guess you won't be asking me why I'm not in curse seal form, so I'll just move on," Yue said as she walked closer and looked into Sakura's eyes, "do you love Naruto?"

Sakura's eyes widened as her mouth fell open slightly. "Huh?"

Yue sighed. "Sakura, are you in love with Naruto?"

"NoNoNoNo! He's just my teammate!" Sakura quickly denied.

One of Yue's eye brows rose. "Well, I thought I was a tsundere, but you're on a whole other level. My nekomata blood wants to out tsundere you now..."

"Tsun- Wait, what?!" Sakura shouted.

Yue clapped her hands twice, the area shaking with each one. "Enough already, the tsun-tsun levels we both produce will shake this weak Tsukuyomi apart before I'm done here," Yue stated, "why are you so afraid?"

"Afraid of what?" Sakura asked.

"Naruto. Is it the Kyūbi?" Yue asked.

Sakura shook her head. "No, I'm not afraid of it."

Yue nodded. "Good, I meant to tell you about it three years ago, but I got caught up in some things."

"You knew? When did you figure it out?" Sakura asked.

"From the very first moment all those seal braces fell off me and my ability to sense chakra returned, which means four days after I met you guys. I had encountered a jinchūriki before and I knew that Naruto carried something more powerful than they did. Due to his last name, I assumed it was the Kyūbi," Yue explained. She didn't want to bother saying how annoying the damn guy was, with his 'epic rhymes' and all that.

"What is so special about Naruto's last name?" Sakura asked.

Yue waved her claw covered hand. "Nothing, just a sad bit of history that Konoha feels it must omit. Anyway, what is it about Naruto that scares you?"

Sakura looked away. "I-I'm not afraid of Naruto."

"I didn't say it was Naruto himself that scared you, just that its related to him in some way," Yue said, "at times, you seem to be almost joined at the hip, but then you seem to be like completely opposite strangers the next. Well, you two are quite opposite, but not as much as you make it out to be."

Sakura frowned, feeling slightly offended. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You both love pranks, both love your team, both care deeply for your friends and both of you are perverts," Yue listed off.

"I am not a pervert!" Sakura snapped.

"Yeah, yeah. Keep telling yourself that and you might believe it some day. One of my many clones caught you peeking in at Naruto during his physical. Now that I think about it, did you learn medical ninjutsu so you could run your hands over his body?" Yue asked, a wicked grin that Anko would approve of on her face.

Sakura went to shout, but she envisioned Naruto taking off his shirt (again) and her running her chakra coated hands over his shoulders and back, the blond teen groaning in relief as she did so. Then came his pants...

Sakura's face turned as red as her shirt.

"Nyeheh, bull's eye!" Yue declared.

Sakura panicked slightly. "N-no! It was Sasuke-kun I imagined, not Naruto! Who'd want to massage Naruto's stiff shoulders, his firm pecs and toned abs? Who would give him a complete and total physical, where he has to strip down to just his boxers?"

Yue smiled like a cat. "Nyufufu. By the sound of it; you."

Sakura hung her head, hiding her burning face as much as possible. _'Stupid, stupid hormones! Damn you puberty, I hate you!'_

Yue suddenly became serious. "I think you're not afraid of Naruto, just that he'll leave you behind, isn't that right?"

Sakura's head shot up, surprise and shock on her face. "How did..."

"I have had sharingan for as long as I can remember, so it's natural that my normal eyes are quite sharp as well. I can read a person's face to some degree, and every time Naruto and Sasuke displayed the power they had three years ago, you got this look on your face that shouted, 'don't leave me behind!' Well, am I right about all this?" Yue asked. That expression was part of the reason Yue had taught Sakura personally.

Sakura nodded slightly. "I was useless to Sasuke-kun and he left, now that I can't really help Naruto out, he'll probably leave me behind too," she said, her voice starting to crack a bit with the tears that were being held back.

"You don't know Naruto all that well then. Sakura, you need to spend time with him, and I don't mean as a teammate or with you acting as distant as you normally do. Just like when we were hunting down Tsunade-sama, spend time with him as a friend. You'll learn a great deal about him if you did, and you'd see how unfounded your fear is," Yue said, "he's not like other people. Even me, a freakish halfbreed, he won't abandon me to my own path without a fight. "

"Yue, you're not a freak," Sakura said.

"Hanyō can't use chakra, Sakura, but I can. I've broken the rules, I've used my own yōki in place of the spiritual energy my demonic flesh can't produce. I've also violated the laws of life and death, coming back from the grave. Sakura, there are beings in this world that are damned, others that are forsaken, hanyō are both," Yue stopped for a minute, then went on, "Sakura, no matter what I do with my life, I'm going straight to Hell again when I die. There's nothing for me in life or death but continued pain and rejection, nothing in death than pain and rememberance. If I had the choice, I'd prefer it if Shinigami ate my soul after death."

Sakura went to say something, but an extremely loud bell tolled, vibrating everything with the force of it's ringing. Sakura noticed that things were breaking apart as well.

"So the chakra I put in is already worn down. How many more times, how long until that demonic war spirit appears, until the last tiny bit of light I possess is eaten away by power," Yue sadly stated, her image phasing in and out like a bad TV picture, "remember what I said, or I'll use the Tsukuyomi properly and 'teach' you to the point of torture next time."

The bell rung again, shattering everything and casting Sakura into a void.

_[Outside the Tsukuyomi]_

Sakura fell to her knees, feeling almost completely drained.

"_**It's time we go, Tayuya, Mana. We have things to do, pe**_ople to see and others to kill," Yue said as she turned away and shut down her curse seal, placing her sword onto her back and using ninjutsu to keep it there in spite of there being no sheathe present. "Naruto, Sakura, keep me being alive a secret. I'd rather not have people come looking for me. Konoha's better off without me."

"Nothing is better off without you," Naruto said.

Yue stopped walking. "Naruto, one of these days, you will kill me. If Sasuke also awakens the mangekyō sharingan, you'll probably need to kill him as well. There's no coming back when they appear. All the mangekyō sharingan user can see is hatred and death, that far off horizon is the edge of our graves. It is best to kill us, so that our eyes can finally stop weeping for the ones we destroyed to get this infernal power." She started walking again, vanishing in a shower of lightning three steps later. Tayuya left in a gust of wind while Mana faded away in a quick vortex of water, leaving Team Kakashi alone.

"Dammit!" Naruto shouted, falling to his knees, "again! I'm still too weak to do anything!"

Sakura placed a shaky hand on Naruto's shoulder. "We'll get them back next time, I'll be there too."

"Me as well," Sai said, holding his wounded arm, "Sakura-san, please heal me so I can help you two."

"I'm almost out of chakra," Sakura admitted.

Yamato walked up. "We all will be there next time, Kakashi-senpai as well," he said as he created three wood clones, "let's get away from here and set up camp. While I'm no medic, I can apply basic first-aid."

_[Five days later, Council Chambers]_

Twelve people had been called in attendance for this meeting: Yamato, Sakura, Naruto and Sai from Team Kakashi, Homura, Koharu and Danzō from the council, Tsunade and her apprentice Shizune, Anko and Lina from Yue's former genin team and Ruuko Urami. The room had been sealed off so nobody could listen in on them.

"I'll start all this by saying it was a mistake to allow that beast become a ninja," Homura said.

"And that will be ignored," Tsunade stated, "now we need all the information we can get on Yue."

"Why not consult her records?" Sakura asked.

"Because they don't really exist. She doesn't even have a birth certificate," Shizune said.

Urami pushed a piece of paper into view. "She does now."

Shizune took the birth certificate and placed it into a file, then held it out to Sakura. "Look for yourself."

Sakura took it and opened it up, finding two pieces of paper and a couple connected pages inside: the birth certificate, her basic ninja information and medical history. The basic information consisted of Yue's known natures, a brief mission history, her name and rank.

"That's all?" Naruto asked.

"Even new academy students have more than this," Sakura said.

Urami cleared his throat. "Yondaime-sama and Sandaime-sama both made a point to have as little put into that file as possible."

"This is illegal," Homura stated as he looked in the file, "with so little information, how could anyone approve of her?"

"Actually, this is the bare minimum required to be in her records. I have no doubt that there was more before she became a genin. Hiruzen either purged it or placed it all into a separate file," Danzō pointed out. He didn't bother saying that accessing her records was impossible before she became a genin.

Homura angrily put the file down. "All we need to know is how powerful she is now so we can give her an accurate threat rating as a missing-nin."

"Hey! She is not a missing-nin!" Naruto shouted.

"Quiet down. She turned her back on you, went against Konoha on more than one occasion and even said she was a missing-nin, so we'll grant her wish and brand her," Homura said.

"We can't say anything for sure yet. She's probably just ashamed of being defeated by a mere genin," Tsunade said, "now we need to know more about her."

"Yue has both the sharingan and mangekyō sharingan. She's also got access to the Amaterasu as well as the Tsukuyomi," Yamato stated, referring to his earlier mission report, which everyone had a copy of.

Sai pulled out a scroll and his brush. "She's also able to project illusions from her eyes as well as push her killing intent into a person through eye contact, much like Sasuke-san." He finished his painting and held up an image of Yue's basic sharingan design.

"That her mangekyō?" Danzō asked.

Urami shook his head. "No, that's the Ruuko's sharingan. My father often used it in secret, til he was killed. Me and my brother didn't ever awaken it, nor did my son. Seems it skipped a generation on my brother's side."

"If I read this correct, Haruno Sakura was trapped in Yue's Tsukuyomi, that means she activated her mangekyō and Sakura saw it," Koharu turned to Sakura, "what pattern did it have?"

Sakura looked away. "She piggy backed the Tsukuyomi on another genjutsu, one that masked her mangekyō from my view. All I saw was flames flickering in her iris and tears of blood under her eye."

"Alright, enough about her eyes. What about her jutsu? We know that she can use that ridiculous fireball attack, as well as that corkscrew-like fire bomb ability, what else can she do?" Homura asked.

"Yue learned a few raiton while I was teaching her. She was able to turn her body into a lightning rod, coat her sword in lightning, project lightning from her hands and she was also able to shatter large stones with her lightning. I have no doubt that she's learned a lot more since I stopped teaching her," Anko listed off.

"As for fire, Yue mastered a large number of katon, including the Uchiha's favored fire techniques as well as the Sandaime's Karyū Endan and his Karyūdan. She had been thinking of trying her hand at wind ninjutsu she was arrested," Lina stated, "she also used shadow clones, sometimes in large numbers, to confuse opponents or make up for her lack of physical power."

"If she's anything like my brother, she's probably grown to the point where she wasn't kidding when she called herself a sword master. I'd say you'd be hard pressed to find a more talented sword fighter from Konoha," Urami said.

Naruto then remembered something. "Wait, didn't you find a wood release that you hadn't used near where Orochimaru had been, Yamato-taichou?"

Yamato nodded. "Compared to what was coming at him, I highly doubt he used it himself. He also expressed the desire to use me to get the wood release for himself. Hmm, now that I think about it, Yue, or maybe it was her clone, had been missing at that point."

"That was the Mokuton blade," Urami said.

"Mokuton blade?" Naruto and Sakura asked.

Urami nodded. "The Mokuton blade. It is a part of the Ruuko clan's Kekkei Tōta: Reimyō Buki."

"What is that?" Danzō asked.

"The Reimyō Buki. The Ruuko clan head, one long before we joined with Konoha, awoke one of the blades while fighting a demon that could eat steel. With the burning blade that appeared in his hands just before they were defeated, he cut the demon apart with ease. He awoke a fire blade, a water blade and an earthen ax. By the time the Ruuko joined with the other great clans, they had a blade for all basic elements. After learning ninjutsu, it was realized that, while he or she possessed the blade, they could use elemental ninjutsu related to it. It is believed that a Ruuko passed some of the lightning blade's power to forge the Raijin no Ken that was used by the Nidaime Hokage," Urami stated.

"If your clan has so much power, why did they wither away?" Tsunade asked, remembering how the clan had been reduced to a dozen or so members by the time she became a ninja.

"The Hyūga and the Uchiha pressured us from both sides, though I suspect that the Hyūga were being led around by the nose. By forcing us to take on the life threatening missions or by pushing us into suicide missions, our numbers were thinned. And I think you made a mistake, this isn't a kekkei genkai, but a kekkei tōta. Only the clan head has ever had the power, which is passed on from parent to child around the tenth year of the heir's life. Yue received it when she turned three," Urami explained.

"Didn't you say she only had five blades, where did this mokuton blade come from then?" Homura asked, writing what he heard down.

Urami pulled out a book and opened it to a page. "My father possessed the five basic blades as well an ice spear and a gauntlet that created explosions on impact. My brother added a swift release bow as well. It seems Yue has awoken a wood sword."

"So they just keep adding to it?" Koharu asked.

Urami shook his head. "I think that all the elemental blades are available, but the time it takes to awaken a sword or two results in it being impossible for one person to manifest all of them in a single lifetime."

"So how is it that you brother and father possessed so many blades?" Koharu asked.

Urami shrugged. "Don't know, I don't have the power. I think it might be sort of like an experience compiling ability or something, meaning its easier for the new bearer of the blades to master the ones their forebears used. Or maybe it is really passed on, meaning the new user automatically knows how to use all the blades the previous users had. Like I said, I was the younger one so I was never told anything about it. I can tell you that no Ruuko has ever had the same weapons. Each manifests a different elemental weapon. My brother's fire weapon, for instance, was a pair of claws, but my father's fire weapon was a hammer."

"Well, that's troubling. To think that a hanyō of all things possesses such a great power. If at all possible, she should be brought in so she can return the power to where it rightfully belongs," Homura said.

"It is where it belongs, in Yue," Urami said.

Homura glared at the man. "But she's a traitor and I'd rather you or your son to have it rather than that wretched beast."

"Neither I nor my son will accept the power, even if you force her to hand it over. Actually, she doesn't even know how to transfer it over, so it will die with her," Urami said.

"Then give me the scroll detailing its usage, I'll instruct her if need be," Homura said, his anger obvious.

Urami sighed. "There is no scroll. Yue was supposed to have received it when she was ten, from her father. She would have learned how he gave it to her and then she could, later on, give it to her eldest child." Well, even if he had passed it on properly and she knew how to unseal and reseal the blades, it wasn't like a lesbian could have kids with her lover.

Homura wanted to find out- "Wait... What exactly happened to her father?"

"They, my brother and sister-in-law, were murdered on the night my niece turned three, five minutes after midnight on her third birthday. Luna-san died first, suffering from a blade in her left eye that struck her brain. Nozomu suffered numerous stab wounds, but not before he transferred the blades to Yue. He also managed to wound his and his wife's attacker, but there was very little blood on my brother's sword, so it must have been used after death took much of his strength," Urami said, then blinked in surprise, "I just remembered two things about that night. When I found them, Yue was crying and I thought some blood had gotten in her eyes, but she must have awoken her sharingan from either the stress of her parents being murdered in front of her, the transfer process or what the attacker did to her. Then again, it might have been a combination of all three."

"What did the murderer do to her?" Sakura asked.

"This," Urami said as he put a piece of paper down. Sakura took it and looked at it. The symbol was similar to that of the ANBU tattoo, but the center spiral was wider and contained a sharingan marking in it. She looked to her right and saw Naruto staring at it. After a moment more, Sakura handed it to Anko.

Anko and Lina looked at it. "What is this, some kind of fucked up curse seal? Isn't that mark on her face enough? That asshole snake didn't think so..." Anko muttered, remembering how her cute student was marked up by that warped bastard.

"No, just something they scratched into her left arm with a sharp object, most likely the same weapon that killed her parents. It left a permanent and very visible scar, so Sandaime-sama helped her learn to put a semi-permanent henge on her left bicep to hide it," Urami said.

"Ironic that they modeled it after the ANBU tattoo, seeing as how she knows both the temporary paralysis technique as well as the time reversal technique, both of which are required of ANBU," Yamato said. When he saw the confusion on Sakura and Naruto's face, he said, "Kakashi-senpai told me about it. She used them during some of Team 7's wilder adventures."

"They got the placement wrong though. Women generally get them placed on the right arm, men get it on the left arm," Tsunade stated.

Homura looked over his notes, thinking. "We have more than enough here to list her as an A-rank missing-nin, unless you have more damning knowledge to add."

"I don't think we have to brand her. I do seem to remember her refusing a couple missions in the past, even going so far as to warn others not to take them, missions that you yourself tried to get taken by using your authority as a councilor. I remember those same missions were actually ones set up to destabilize our relations with other villages," Danzō said. He should know, since he'd sent his Ne ANBU to kill the ones who tried to endanger Konoha through those means.

Homura had nothing to say in response. While she was a traitor, she'd seen what others had not and protected the village. Even the Sandaime hadn't seen the danger some of those missions. "Her insight really was top notch, but now that same insight is aimed at us. She also knows much about Konoha, things that could lead to our village's end if an enemy were to get their hands on them. Or she could just attack us herself."

"You can't just kill her!" Naruto shouted.

"I never said she'd be killed. We need her here so we can somehow get her to pass the power of the Ruuko on," Homura said.

"Is that all you care about?" Shizune asked.

Homura adjusted his glasses slightly. "The safety of Konoha is what I care about. The kekkei tōta that cat possesses would greatly benefit us, but not in her hands."

Everyone remained silent, realizing that Homura would do all he could to put Yue into the bingo book. Could they even stop him, since Yue herself claimed she was a missing-nin.

"I do have a method of you saving her though, Naruto," Homura said.

Naruto blinked in confusion. "M-Me?"

Homura looked to Tsunade. "Hokage-sama, will you allow Naruto to make a decision in your stead?"

"What are you planning?" Tsunade asked, wary now.

"Nothing at all. You have expressed the desire to have this boy as your successor, despite his disappointing rank and... less than desirable circumstances, so I was thinking we can show him the enormity of a Hokage's burden by having him decide something with the authority of a Hokage," Homura explained.

Tsunade thought about it for a few moments, knowing that the man could pretty much trick Naruto into some ridiculous things, but he wouldn't do that with so many people that were close to Naruto around. "Fine, but I forbid anything that would endanger Naruto or his rights," she declared as she stood up and allowed Naruto to sit in her seat, the seat of the Hokage.

Homura shook his head. "I never thought this day would come, not while I was alive anyway. Ahem. Hokage Uzumaki Naruto, I have come to you to approve of an idea of mine concerning Kazeneko Yue."

"You should call her 'Clan Head Ruuko Yue' if you wish to properly address her," Urami stated.

"She forfeited the right to be a proper member of a clan, let alone clan head, when she fled and then barred her fangs at us," Homura said as he shot a sideways glance at the Ruuko, then looked back to Naruto, "sorry, Hokage. Now I propose that, if Kazeneko Yue is to not be labeled a missing-nin, then we should add the information of Uchiha Sasuke to the books instead."

"Wh-Why?" Naruto asked, a little surprised at the proposition now. He wasn't the only one on edge either.

"It is quite simple really. One is with a known criminal that has not only killed two Kage, but is also responsible for numerous atrocities to humanity as well as the death of many residents of Konoha. The other has attacked Konoha ninja on two occasions and is leading around a person who nearly killed a friend of yours, as well as an unknown individual with only one known loyalty: to Yue. Other villages need to know of at least one of these two, since Konoha not knowing that two of their former ninja have become strong enough to threaten other villages would make us seem stupid and vulnerable. We need to at least put one into the books, so we don't incite any unneeded troubles that could harm Konoha in the long run. It is wholly believable that we could miss one, but not two," Homura explained, "I will give you some time to think about it, as well as time to consult all those present."

Naruto always knew of and appreciated the power a Hokage had, but he never thought that this kind of question would be presented to him. Homura had placed two lives into Naruto's hands, lives of people important to him, and had basically told him that the one he chose would be hunted and killed like a wild dog. It went against everything he stood for.

Sakura was worried and conflicted. She wanted Sasuke back, but she also wanted Yue back in Konoha as well. Team 7 had been all of them, five members. To lose one forever would make them never feel complete again. They needed their shadow clone spamming idiot, smart girl, cocky heir, lazy sensei and pint sized (well, not so much anymore) cat girl. Sai had expressed the desire to remain with them and, Sakura felt that he'd fit in with the band of weirdos.

Yamato didn't know too much about how team 7 had been, only knowing what was on file and what he'd observed during the mission. He knew that, in reality, Yue could have abandoned or killed them at any time, but she expressed genuine concern for Naruto and Sakura while under the guise of an Uchiha, going so far as to attempt to kill Orochimaru by using her unique power. From what he had seen, even after revealing her true self, she wasn't someone who deserved to be a missing-nin. Sasuke... Well, there was a saying that worked in this case: if the shoe fits, wear it.

Sai was rather indifferent to Yue, but he had changed a bit while with Naruto and he'd seen something hidden under those emotionally cold sharingan Yue had trained on Team Kakashi. Even though there was no true tie between them, she'd repositioned her blade so it went through an easy to heal part of his arm rather than run his lung through. Sasuke, as he'd tried to point out to Naruto, seemed beyond hope. Like Yue said, all the sharingan saw was hatred and while it might not be true for the hanyō, it was true for the raven haired swordsman. In Sai's not-so-expert opinion, Sasuke should be branded a missing-nin and Yue should become the objective of the retrieval mission.

Shizune and Tsunade had both interacted with Yue on three occasions, two of those times the hanyō's life had been on the line. Yue, like Naruto, was willing to face down impossible odds, push herself to her limits and beyond, all to protect whatever it was she decided needed it. Shizune admired the young woman's spirit while Tsunade admired her willingness to stand before a person many times stronger than her because they were trying to do something she didn't approve of. Neither woman had much of an opinion on Sasuke, other than him being a former member of team 7 and he, before Orochimaru appeared, wasn't all that bad of a guy if Naruto and Sakura were reliable sources of information.

"Uzumaki Naruto, I don't think I need to tell you which one to mark," Urami suddenly said, "you know which one needs you, and which one doesn't. They will understand after you bring them back home. I need to apologize to that girl too, for trying to poison her."

Anko had been lost in her memories of Yue, thinking they might be all she would be left with soon enough. "Huh? What the hell? You tried to poison her?!" the snake mistress snapped as she got up.

Urami's hands quickly shot up in defense. "I only did that because her attackers were still around and, as Sandaime-sama found out, Yue's latent chakra and yōki were destroying all the seals I had put in place to hide her! I figured it would be preferable for her to die while ignorant and in the dark, rather than let her taste happiness and light! I never told her, except on that day, that I did in fact love her and saw her as my cute little niece."

"Who the fuck attacked my student?" Anko growled, looking like she was ready to tear chunks off the table and beat the man to death with them.

"Look at the mark that was carved in her arm and it's obvious who attacked her: the Uchiha clan!" Urami shouted, "that mark tells anyone who put it there. With her blood borne hatred of them, it would only be a matter of time before she trained our clan's hidden sharingan at the Uchiha and attempted to destroy them! That's why they probably tried to kill her off."

"Blood borne hatred?" Naruto asked.

Urami nodded. "It's no secret that the Uchiha never liked us and we returned the feeling. Did you know that, when he joined up with Konoha, the Uchiha all tried to have us forced out? They even went so far as to suggest sending us to Kiri or Suna, just so we'd be away from them. When that failed, they tried to get approval from the Shodai Hokage to have us absorbed into their clan to eliminate a potential threat." He shook his head.

Naruto sighed, having finished thinking. "Alright, I've decided which one will be a missing-nin, though I wish I could spare them both."

Everyone chose sides, each deciding on a different person who should be tossed aside.

Suddenly, Sakura hoped it was Sasuke that Naruto had chosen. Even if she did love Sasuke, there was something about his eyes, something cold and alien. Even if Yue had mostly hidden behind sharingan, even though Sakura had been subjected to Yue's Tsukuyomi, even the curse seal, Sakura could see that Yue still cared about them. Sasuke's only concern with them had been killing Naruto, to finally be completely free of his 'useless' past.

Anko, Tsunade, Shizune and Koharu were all united in the belief that Sasuke was beyond hope. Yue was different. Even if the hanyō had said that she was separate from Konoha, she expressed concern for it and hadn't completely shaken off its teachings, unlike Sasuke.

Homura was delighted. He'd never liked Yue and he never hid it. Nobody other than that freak had ever defied him, ever publicly insulted him. He had his pride and that cat had seen fit to use every opportunity to trample on it. Sasuke could, with the right incentive, be brought back to the light. If need be, they could find a woman willing to assist in the Uchiha's revival. Maybe even offering up a number of jōnin willing to train him however he wanted, within reason of course. Sasuke was a human, meaning he could always be led back to the right path. That halfbreed had been on the wrong path from birth and, as she had said, she had nothing to look forward to but rejection, death and the eternal torments of Hell.

"I've chosen Kazeneko Yue to be the missing-nin," Naruto said, dashing numerous people's hopes.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Anko roared as she got up, only to be restrained by Urami and Sakura.

Homura had a satisfied smile on his face. "Well then, I will add her information to the books. Good work, boy, you may make a decent Hokage someday."

"Don't you want to know why I chose her?" Naruto asked.

"Not really," Homura said. He figured it was because Naruto felt no kinship with the monster.

Naruto stood up and looked at the man hard, right in the eyes. "It's because of what she said to me: that I will have to kill her one day. No matter what happens to her, no matter what is set against her, Yue will live until we fight. I won't kill her though, I'll show her that she does have a place here, in her home village with Team Kakashi, and I will bring her back as her friend, pupil and a Konoha ninja. She will be a ninja of Konoha again, believe it!"

"I agree with Homura, you will make a fine Hokage someday, Uzumaki Naruto. Of course, our reasons are very different," Urami said with a small but grim smile. (Seriously, the man looks as cheerful as a cemetery)

Homura's face was filled with disgust, though it only showed in his frown and his eyes. "We are done here." He turned and left to finish what he believed would lead to Yue's death, but Naruto saw it as a way of finding more leads on the girl. Koharu and Danzō left as well, both having their own things to do.

Tsunade sat in her chair and looked directly at the temporary clan head of the Ruuko. "Now that he's gone, how about telling us the truth about Yue? You've been keeping things from us and we need to know all about her if we are to bring her back."

"As expected, the sense I got from you was that of a person who could see more than the average human," Urami said.

"Sense?" Sai asked, confused as to what the man meant.

"I may not be the true clan head of the Ruuko, but even my father praised my ability to get a good sense of a person and their potential. I felt it every time my brother touched a blade, every time his wife stood proud to face an enemy, every time I beheld the Yondaime Hokage and Tsunade-sama," Urami said, then looked at Naruto, "and every time I saw you and my niece."

"Me? I have potential?" Naruto asked.

Urami nodded. "I don't know what your potential lies in, but it was swordsmanship, sharingan and ninjutsu that Yue excelled in. Learning at incredible rates, mastering things no academy student should master. I've only seen that three before: with her father, the Yondaime and you, Naruto-kun. I have a feeling that, had you, Uzumaki Naruto-kun, been taken seriously from the very beginning, you'd be a force to be reckoned with. Funny really, how you are strong where she is weak."

"Yue's weak?" Sakura wondered aloud, not seeing it.

"That bastard Yakushi was right about her, she's almost emotionally crippled. I'm not saying she is lacking in emotion, just that she can't control them too well, that and they are too powerful for her to understand," Urami said.

"Her emotions are too powerful?" Lina asked.

"Yes, she never learned how to suppress her emotions or handle them, making them a bit too much for her to deal with at times. My guess is that her desire to return Sasuke to Konoha is the last remnant of a bond she has to Konoha, aside from this mad urge to be killed by Naruto. I don't have to go telling you who the recipient of Yue's final, unbreakable bond is, nor do I have to tell you why it is unbreakable," Urami said.

"It's to Ino, a bond forged of love," Sakura said.

Naruto, Lina and Yamato all looked shocked. "She loves Ino?"

"No, she's in love with Ino. Even if she tries to cut herself off..." Sakura stopped, realizing what might be happening, "Naruto, you definitely have to save her!"

"Of course I will," Naruto said, fully confident of his ability to do so.

"You don't get it, do you Naruto? Yue wants you to kill her because she knows that, out of everyone she knows, you won't give her a cruel death because you understand her loneliness," Sakura said.

Urami shook his head, not that Sakura noticed it. _'No, Haruno-san, she wants a person who understands the pain of love, the same __agonizing __one-sided__ love, to end her suffering.'_

Naruto put a hand on Sakura's shoulder. "Don't worry Sakura-chan, I won't anything happen to any of my friends, not when I can do something about it."

"Naruto..." Sakura murmured, blushing a bit. She gave the boy a somewhat stern look, or it would have been if she weren't still blushing, "this better not be some way of making me go on another date with you."

Naruto sighed and hung his head in defeat. "Just...once more, please..." he quietly begged.

The Bingo Book, the guide to who was dangerous, who threatened people the most and which person's body would fetch a good sum of ryo in addition to making the world a bit safer. It is a book that all ninja hold in the highest regard, seeing no other book as being remotely equal. Those who don't must be fools.

(In Konoha, Kakashi continued to read his new Icha Icha in spite of suddenly sneezing)

The books were updated month to month, special ninja investigators and photographers out every day using concealment ninjutsu or genjutsu to get shots and information on the missing-nin. They didn't always succeed, didn't always return, but it was invaluable when they did.

What the ninja didn't know was that the book wasn't infallible, that it had long since become a joke. The underworld, an existence more vicious and bloodier than the world of shinobi during any of its infamous wars, had infiltrated the whole process and their blood and black lists, the list of those to kill and those to avoid respectively, was updated every half month and that resulted in many entries in the bingo book useless since those people were already dead, their corpses or heads traded in for money.

News of Kazeneko Yue, or Red Blade as she'd been called for the last five months, spread like wildfire. The prize for killing her was a small fortune, and her red sword was also a trophy for her killer. Red Blade and Yue's entries were combined with the knowledge of her survival and her confirmed kill count rose into the triple digits. There was a large target on her back and it just so happened that the wolves of the Underworld were like sharks with legs, ready to go into a wild feeding frenzy.

_[A secret location]_

The assembled men and women, none of them shinobi, all bowed to one another and sat down. They all wore plain white robes with hoods, plain white masks with three slits to look through and allow their voices to pass through while ensuring maximum anonymity.

"Gentlemen and ladies, it appears one of the candidates for the Child is still alive," a large man stated.

There was murmuring amongst the assembled, wondering which of the lost was still around.

The man stood up to call for silence. "Kazeneko Yue, hanyō and the wild leader of the Ruuko clan, survived her injuries three years ago and is mightier than ever."

"What proof do you have of this?" an older man asked, a cane resting under his left hand.

The man produced a number of pictures, all of them featuring Yue in her recent battle with Team Kakashi. "Is this enough proof?" he asked, "it seems that her and Red Blade are one and the same. Those wild dogs are already calling her 'Crimson Blade' or 'Red Blade Yue.' They don't even care that she's stronger than a simple ANBU, they just want their blood and money."

"Don't forget the other name she bears, 'Death's Blade.' You can't go forgetting that one," a young man excitedly added.

"Don't give her new names, boy, she has enough already," the old man warned, knowing the youth was just trying to start something new.

The men were talking amongst themselves, remembering how Red Blade had butchered an entire camp of rogue samurai who had turned to slavery and pillaging. Red Blade hadn't used her own sword for it, killing them all with their own swords instead, the greatest insult to a sword user.

A woman slammed her fist down. "Enough of all this! We know she's alive, so how about we bring her and some of the others in already?" she looked to another member, a lackey, "bring out all the photos!"

The man quickly brought out a number of pictures of different people, none of them even in their mid-twenties. "Th-these are the candidates," another woman asked, shocked at their ages.

Automatically, a dozen were swept away and only six remained. "These are the most likely. They are the only six I can think of that would be the Child," the woman said.

One man picked up a picture. "This young woman, I think we can get her if we're careful." he said as he turned the picture around, showing them Temari.

The old man stroked his chin. "Yes, when one hears the phrase 'power of the heavens,' one thinks of wind. Add to it that, outside of Suna, the element is pretty rare. Even for Suna, her power is quite astonishing."

Two more photos were picked up, though one was torn up when he stated that the young man had been killed recently. The remaining photo showed a young woman with red hair and glasses, Kusa's Karin. Her eyes and her amazing healing ability were believed to be similar to what they were looking for.

The final two pictures were picked up. "This boy... He does seem to be the one who could bring about what we need."

"As can Kazeneko-kun," the old man said as he put her photo down, "I'm willing to put much of my money into finding and capturing her."

"Are you insane? With the 'Aka Kubikirihōchō' and that lightning of hers, she'll kill normal jōnin level ninja with ease. The real strong ones are either wild dogs that abandoned their villages or they are completely devoted to them!" a man shouted.

The old man laughed. "Even without that level of power, she can be caught. Even a mountain can be felled with the right application of a small force. If her lightning is that powerful, and her blade is that deadly, you just need to render her sword and lightning worthless."

"Then I will bring this one in," the huge man stated as he put the picture he'd been looking at down. It was Uchiha Sasuke that he'd marked as his prey.

"I'll get this pretty lady then," the young man from before said, holding Temari's photo.

"Che! I'll get my hands on this girl and then help the senior citizen out, since this Karin looks like a dunce and I'm pretty sure that the old man will be broke and homeless from chasing the Red Blade," the woman said.

The old man stood up. "If this all works, then my riches will mean nothing at all in the end."

The rest stood up and they all turned to a reproduction of an ancient carving that depicted a youth with a pair of wings, a shattered globe hovering over their hand. "We will find you, Child of Strife, so you may end this rotten world of endless war the shinobi have forced us to live in!" all of them said, heads bowed in respect to an unknown Destroyer.

_[Konoha,, Yakiniku-Q, the next day]_

Naruto was busy thinking. Kakashi had said that, by training with him, Naruto would surpass him? Would that be enough? Sasuke was strong, but Yue... she had put Kabuto and Orochimaru on the defensive with her henged clones, then trounced them on her own, though she did surprise them. Could Naruto really devise an ultimate jutsu that could defeat Sasuke, who may or may not have used kinjutsu and drugs to enhance his strength while training with a sannin, and Yue, a half demon with an as of yet unknown level of power? Surpassing his sensei and bringing those two back seemed hopeless. And don't even get him started on Akatsuki, Itachi and that fish guy were monsters.

_'Sakura-chan, is it right to not tell Ino about Yue?'_ Naruto thought as he settled into his spot. The Hokage had decided to make it so only the more seasoned ninja got the bingo books with Yue's info in it and nobody unrelated to Yue's recent mission would know of her continued survival. Sakura had been the one to put her foot down on having Ino in the loop, saying it was far too early to tell the blonde.

"Where's Shikamaru?" Sakura asked.

Choji wiped some drool off his chin. "He went home for a nap, since he's up so late recently helping his dad get antlers for Hokage-sama. That and the chūnin exam planning has been kicking his butt recently."

"That's weird. He always shows up for mission briefings," Ino mused.

"Shikamaru's share is mine!" Choji declared as he went to eat.

"Choji! We have a new friend! Introduce yourself first!" Ino snapped. Maybe Sai would be what she needed to move forward. She hadn't even tried dating since Sasuke left and Yue died, but it was time to leave the past where it was. She wouldn't wait for Sasuke to come back and she couldn't do anything about Yue being dead, but she could go from being single to in a relationship.

Choji looked depressed as he put the food down. "Sorry, I forgot about that..." He looked at the person who had attacked his friend well over a week ago. "I'm Akimichi Choji, nice to meet you, Sai-san."

"Pleased to meet you as well... Hmm," Sai stopped. This teen was very large and powerful looking, so what would be a good name for him? Calling him a cow wouldn't work, since Sakura had responded badly when he called her an ugly dog, though it was kind of true in his eyes. Maybe an animal of girth and power? "Boa-"

In a flash, Naruto covered Sai's mouth and leaned close to whisper, "don't ever use any word that could mean he's overweight. You saw what he did to your ink lions? He'll do that and worse to you!"

"You were saying?" Choji asked, wondering if he had one of the taboo words? Maybe another table...

"He was just thinking aloud," Sakura said, a nervous smile on her face. An angry Choji was almost on par with a cranky Tsunade.

"I'm Yamanaka Ino, from the Yamanaka flower shop. Nice to meet you," Ino greeted with a smile. First impressions were always the best, especially when you were aiming for a guy's heart.

Sakura was looking forward to this. Sai's innate rudeness would make the pig explode!

Sai looked at Ino and nothing remotely nice came to mind as he looked at her. Well, being honest didn't work, so he'd lie. "Nice to meet you, pretty lady."

Sakura was fuming! Out of all the people he'd have to say something good about, it just had to be INO! _'S-Shānnarō!'_ she mentally roared as her friend and former rival blushed.

Naruto was wondering what was up with Sai. Was he into blonde girls?

"It's no wonder that Kazeneko Yue is in love with you," Sai said.

Sakura's rage vanished, replaced with panic and fear. Naruto wanted to drag Sai away while saying he was drunk or something, anything to make it seem like he misspoke!

"Y-you mean 'liked,' right? She's been dead for three years now," Ino said, a slight tremor in her hands. Why did the mere mention of Yue have her shake in fear? Wait, how did Sai know anything about Yue in the first place?

"No, in fact, I recently saw he-" Sai started, only to be tackled by Naruto, "what's going on?"

Naruto went to tell him why, but a slim hand seized his head from behind. "Naruto..." Ino said in a threatening manner.

"H-hai?" Naruto yelped.

"Is he telling the truth?" the girl asked, her eyes steady and cool.

"I-Ino," Sakura tried.

That was a mistake since it made the blonde focus on her. "Sakura, we need to talk, NOW!"

"H-hai!" Sakura squeaked as she shot up and followed the fuming blonde.

_[Outside]_

Sakura had her back to a wall and a very dangerous animal was staring her down. "I can explain..."

"Explain it to me then! How could she have survived? She lost over eighty percent of her blood supply!" Ino shouted.

"I don't know how, but she is alive," Sakura said. That was the biggest mystery of them all. That was the second time in her life that Yue should have bled to death, but didn't. From her slit throat and pierced torso, Yue had lost over a hundred and forty percent of her blood supply from those two injuries alone. The girl should have died twice over at the very least.

"Why didn't she come back? What is she doing?" Ino asked.

Now Sakura looked away. "She was declared a missing-nin, A-ranked. As far as I can tell, she was working as a mercenary for anyone who pays well enough, or maybe that was a cover. She's traveling with Tayuya, a former member of the Sound Five that helped Sasuke-kun go to Orochimaru three years ago, and a medic whose face we haven't seen, but goes by the name Mana."

Ino looked down now. It was her fault that Yue went out in the first place, was it now her fault that Yue didn't come back? Could it be that, after she healed up, Yue thought Ino would hate her for not bringing back Sasuke? She always thought that if it turned out that Yue was still alive, the guilt would fade, but it just got worse.

"Listen, Ino, I don't think it's your fault. Yue's...She's...hard to understand sometimes," Sakura said, trying to reassure her friend, "I was taught by her and I still, after three years, don't understand some of what she said."

"Like what?" Ino asked.

"That looking underneath didn't just apply to ninjutsu related subjects," Sakura said.

Ino looked at her friend, a bit of a smile on her face. "Oh, so that giant forehead of yours is just for show?"

"Oh, so what do you think she meant?" Sakura shot back.

Ino's smile fell. "I don't know either. Asuma-sensei has said things like that before, then he follows up by saying I'll know what he meant when I need to know."

Sakura knew that her friend needed this, so she offered it. "Want to see her? You can still read memories, right?"

Ino nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." She placed her hand on Sakura's head and found the memory, which Sakura had brought to the surface of her mind. She looked over the hanyō, saw her new clothes, her transformed weapon, her skill as she fought, the form she adopted with her level 2 curse seal. Ino committed it all to memory so that she, if she were lucky, could meet the hanyō and apologize. "Thanks Sakura."

Sakura smiled back. "You're welcome. Honestly, I thought we shouldn't tell you, since you were pretty messed up when news came back that Sasuke injured her so badly."

Ino knew that Sakura had the best intentions in mind, but it was time for a bit of revenge. "She's really pretty now. Even her sharingan are attractive."

"Yeah, too pretty if you ask me. She used to be this scruffy kid with nothing, now she's a beauty with a good body," Sakura said.

"Where did those curves come from?" Ino asked, laying the trap. Ino could appreciate another woman's body since she herself was a woman. Men, no matter how they tried to avoid it, would sound like they swung that way if they commented on how attractive their fellow men were.

Sakura shrugged. "Late growth spurt?"

_'Hook, line and sinker!'_ Ino thought as she grinned, "you wishing for one now? You know, the late growth spurt~" Ino taunted while placing a hand on her chest, the other on her hip, both of which were more womanly than Sakura's.

_[Inside the restaurant]_

Naruto, Choji and Sai had set some meat aside for the girls, since two of the three knew there would be hell to pay if they didn't.

"What's taking them so long?" Choji asked.

"Girl stuff," Naruto answered. Jiraiya had done his best to make Naruto a bigger pervert than before, but he'd only partially succeeded. Even so, the supposed 'ladies man' didn't understand the infamous 'girl stuff' at all.

"That time of the month?" Sai wondered aloud.

"What time of the month?" Naruto and Choji asked.

"Shānnarō! I'll kill you, Ino-pig!" Sakura roared, Ino's mischievous giggle was almost completely drowned out.

Naruto and Choji nodded. _'It must be that time of the month, whatever that means.'_ they thought as the mystery known as 'woman' deepened even more.

_[A roadside bar in Kusa, same time]_

The man strolled in, not even looking at any of the people who were already there. He didn't need any trouble, just a few minutes of time and a number of words. He made it to the bar and sat on a stool a small distance from the others.

The bartender came over, cleaning a glass. "What'll it be, friend?"

The man pulled his bandana slightly, uncovering his mouth. "The Red Blade, or Kazeneko Yue, whichever is being used right now," he said.

Instantly, everyone tensed up. One woman fell off her stool, skittered into a corner and suffered what seemed to be an emotional breakdown as she started whispering, shivering, cowering and crying in what appeared to be abstract fear.

"Sir, that is one woman I'll never say anything about, not anymore," the bartender said as he cleaned the cup more rigorously than before.

The young man, who wore a sleeveless green shirt and gray slacks with metal bottomed geta on his feet, adjusted the belt around his torso so the sword sat on his back a little straighter. "Master, I just need some information on her. Just knowing the last place she was seen is enough," he plead, running a hand through his tied off, messy brown hair.

"So-So much blood..." the traumatized woman muttered to herself, "everyone... all of them, cut down...by her bloody blade."

The young man went over to the woman and crouched before her. "Are you talking about the Red Blade, the one believed to be the strongest female sword master of our age?"

"That-that woman? She's a demon! A thing like th-that doesn't deserve any title aside from monster!" the woman shouted, then flinched and fell into a fear filled stupor.

"She's a matron from a whore house, about two days away to the west," a man said, then took a sip of his sake, "there's nothing left there anymore, since Red Blade Yue burned it down after turning it into a slaughter house."

"Is that true?" the young swordsman asked, looking to the bartender.

The bartender put the cup down, none to gently either. "Yes, she did burn it down after killing everyone. My son went to see if it wasn't some kind of scheme. He claimed that, after six days, the place was still burning."

The young swordsman was confused. "Still burning? How is that possible?"

"My son must have been dipping into the sake, since he claimed that the place was being eaten by black flames with dark green edges. He claimed the black was like looking at pure sin and the green was like the worst miasma man could dream about," the bartender said, "now go before you bring that demon to my bar with your summonings. No insurance covers demon attacks and hellfire."

The young swordsman left the bar, flicking his sunglasses down after stepping outside. "Two days to the west, huh. Looks like I've finally caught your tail, Kazeneko Yue. I won't let you leave this time, I swear on my name, Tenko Habiki!"

"So this is the young man who wishes to bring doom upon his own head?"

Habiki turned, his hand flashing up to the handle of his sword. Before him was a woman wearing an outrageous, skin tight black outfit, the front open to an almost scandalous low, with brown hair that reached her waist in waves. She had a figure that screamed 'sin' and her face was beautiful enough that men would become her pets if it meant being near her. She had a whip wrapped around her waist, its metal segments visible to the world.

There was a kid too. He wore a baggy hat, baggy shirt and what looked like pants that were a size too big for him. He had curly blond hair and teal eyes set on an innocent face. The kid looked completely out of place next to that bombshell of a woman.

_'These two are dangerous, and pros too,'_ Habiki thought, keeping his hand at the ready to draw his sword. He wouldn't be taken in by the beauty of the flesh or the innocence of the young, he'd seen things that destroyed his normal perception of the world and cleared his head of the dreams of grandeur that the young and foolish had when they were praised a bit for their slightly above average talents. "Who are you two?" he asked.

"We're not telling you. Just call me Ichi," the woman said, a cute smile on her face while she leaned forward, showing more cleavage than should be possible while clothed.

"Then I'm Nii," the kid said, getting in on the counting game.

Habiki sighed as he relaxed slightly. "I'll give you my name, since I'm respectable and you already heard it. I'm Habiki, Tenko Habiki, formerly of the Serpent Sword style school."

"Oho~ So that's why you chase that damned swordswoman, to get revenge on her for destroying your school~" the woman purred.

Habiki remained silent on that matter. "If you have something to tell me, then spill it."

The woman wouldn't stop with her seduction routine. "Hmm, me and my temporary partner do know where the massacre took place, but it would be a waste to go there since it's nothing more than ash and a few posts of blackened wood."

"It doesn't matter, take me there," Habiki insisted.

"Oh my! Such a direct and determined young man, I think I may enjoy this," the woman cooed to herself, then started leading the way.

_[Elsewhere]_

An older man stared out the window, wishing the skies were clear of the dark clouds.

Click. "Sir."

The old man turned to see a young soldier standing there, head bowed. "Is the deed done?"

The soldier shook his head. "Sorry sir, but every assassin we've sent has been returned, or at least their heads or hands have."

The old man gripped the arms of his chair, causing the wood to groan in protest. "That damn half human trash... I'd say Kami favored her, but all those with demonic blood have been forsaken by Her. Send more men this time, and make sure they are strong."

"But sir, if we keep this up and its found out, we could be-" the soldier started.

"SILENCE!" the old man roared as he stood up, picking up a blade, "the people will be proud that we've shaken off that embarrassment!"

"But sir, the people love her and her ability to relate to them," the soldier said.

The old man huffed. "Of course she can relate, a wretched halfbreed can only ever associate with trash like them anyway. Commoners exist solely to uplift nobility." He sat down again, turning away from the soldier. "Get it done this time."

The young man saluted and left to take care of his orders. The old man stood up and picked up a picture of a woman who looked like an older Yue with two vibrant green eyes and a small red pendant earring on her right cat ear, her left bearing a simple silver ring like the girl she resembled. "If only you didn't choose that filth, if only you produced an heir that could be proudly shown to the people, I wouldn't have to kill your child, my dearest Luna. I don't care is the people hate me, I, Kazeneko Jeio, lord of the Kazeneko, shall restore our family name by purging my tainted granddaughter's human blood from our line. I won't let an abandoned princess lead us to ruin!"

**A/N~**

Brought my ninja kitty back, but it's the same as seeing your daughter going down the wrong path in life. And what's with this secretive group, who could they be? As for Jeio (pronounced Jay-oh, in case you were wondering), more will be revealed on him later. And wait, is Yue...nobility?

While I'm here, I will say now that, if things work out, the next chapter will be more in depth to Yue herself and, after it gets to her part, will allow us into her screwed up little head. If things pan out, Yue will run into two groups, one that was hunting for her and one that just wanted to have fun. Expect outbursts from my tsundere cat girl at the unfairness of life.

I'm also going to be editing earlier chapters to clear out errors, such as the now infamous chūnin exam numbering and the kekkei genkai mess up. I'm also going to edit times slightly, adding time after Hiruzen's death, making it so it took more time for Tsunade to settle in and give Sasuke a few weeks before the seal turns him into mini-Madara. This is to make some (hopeful) future events work out. These events are anime only arcs, movie arcs and arcs I made that will be mentioned in flashbacks. I won't watch the arcs or movies (I seriously don't have the bandwidth, money or time) but I will be using the Narutopedia to try and work Yue into the events of the included arcs, even if it is just her standing guard or hacking up some nameless minions somewhere. You will know that the chapter is updated when the titles replace whatever chapter they are in the chapter listing, just like this chapter.

I'm also removing the anime/manga power of perfectly healing skin, especially on female characters. This means that certain wounds, such as Sakura's Kyūbi claw wound and a few that will be inflicted on Yue will leave permanent scars. Neither ones scars will be horrible or disfiguring, but they will still be there.

Oh, and before I forget, Yue isn't overpowered. Right now, she's around the skill of a talented ANBU captain from Kiri, aka a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, only her chakra levels and stamina are extremely high.

**Sort-of Rage Rant-**

I am telling you all now that chapter 627 looked like a badly planned and executed plot twist done by a grade school kid on acid.

_**IT...**_

_**SUCKED!**_

Seriously, wait until I get to that point in most of my fics and you will agree that mine is better. Wait until I get to the part where Sasuke will switch sides in KTD. At least it doesn't involve homo bro love and the magical change from mini-Madara to pre-curse seal Sasuke, all in about half an hour.

At least Karin is keeping her character, the mindless damn fan girl... THAT will change too!

**Reasons for absences-**

I've actually had a chapter for each of my fics done for a while now, but it finally happened: good harem fics are appearing again on FF. (That and this chapter felt unfit for posting until I did a few tweaks)

Here they are, in list form.

'The Foxes Collar' by Dragon Drake of Legend: an interesting NaruSakuIno with ecchi goodness. The Foxes Collar does have a lot of spelling errors and such, but it is fun to read, and it contains literal Sasuke (and fan girl) bashing with Naruto suffering blood loss with almost every chapter!

'The Ark' by wilkins75: another NaruSakuIno that is quite unique. I'm looking forward to The Ark, since it has a very interesting plot, though I do believe Gaara's being a bit of a moron with what's going on.

And if you're into monstrosity chapters that are equal to or greater than this one, search for 'Naruto Dragon Champion' by Freedom Guard. I don't use the term ever, but Naruto is really mackin' it with all the ladies in that fic! (I hope I used that the right way) He's the damn pimp-kage in that fic!

**Look into the future (previews that are subject to change)**

**Rise of the Snake-**

The snake was back, his golden, snake-like eyes locked on the two before him, a twisted grin on his new face.

"No..." Naruto and Sakura muttered, unable to believe that the snake had broken free and taken control.

"Kukuku. Long time no see, Naruto-kun," the snake greeted, happy that he'd finally won against his host. He lifted Kusanagi into a ready position, blade aimed at Naruto's heart.

**KILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILL!-**

"Guh... Grrrr. GAAAHHH!" Yue screamed as she fell to her knees, holding her head as it felt like someone was trying to tear her mind apart.

_'What's going on? I attempted to catch her in a genjutsu with my sharingan, but that shouldn't have worked with her countering with her mangekyō,'_ Kakashi thought as he reverted from his own mangekyō to the regular sharingan.

Yue leaned forward, suddenly relaxed, her hair messily hanging over her shoulders as she gained control of her breathing.

"Kazeneko...san?" Sai asked, shocked that her chakra had vanished.

Yue looked up, and all members of Team Kakashi reacted from a sudden...onslaught of killing intent.

Kakashi's eyes widened in shock. He'd never, EVER felt killing intent this potent. Calling it killing intent felt like an insult to the murder infested air that was radiating from the girl. Even the Kyūbi, when it attacked Konoha, hadn't put out this much during its rampage. He would later see that many small animals, such as rodents and birds, had died from the wild killing intent.

For nearly a minute, Kakashi held his breath without knowing it. When Yue flinched again and her head lowered, the famous copy ninja sucked in air like a drowning man. Looking around, he saw his team in different states. Naruto and Sakura were both unconscious from overdosing on the killing intent. Sai had fared better, if you called lying on your stomach with a horror struck expression 'faring better.' Ten- Sorry, Yamato was breathing hard and covered in sweat.

It was at this moment that Kakashi realized that both he and his fellow ex-ANBU had dropped to their knees.

_'No living being can harbor such a violent streak. What is going on with her?'_ Yamato thought.

**Weapon lovers: UNITE!-**

Guy, Neji and Lee paled when they saw their teammate, Tenten, and their target, Kazeneko Yue, staring at the weapons as if they were hunky male super models. The girls were even DROOLING with their mouths hanging open, heavy blushes on their faces with sparkles in their eyes.

"I fear for the chastity of the weapons," Neji muttered, receiving nods from a number of men present.

**Light and Shadow-**

"Sasuke never was your opposite, Naruto. He couldn't be," Yue said, blood running from her mangekyō and mouth, suffering from her injuries.

Naruto tried to move forward, but the young woman's grip tightened on her sword, letting him know that she still had the strength to 'scratch' him. "What are you saying Yue?" He, in spite of having allies against the lone missing-nin, was almost equally injured.

"You are the light of this world, one fit to eventually bear the title of 'Shinobi no Kami,' just like Sarutobi Hiruzen and Senju Hashirama. I'm the shadow, the one fit to bear Danzō's title of 'Shinobi no Yami.' I am your opposite, you're mirror, Naruto," Yue said, forcing herself to stand ready for combat, "we can't co-exist, one of us has to die."

"That was almost all lies and we both know it, Yue," Naruto said, getting ready to fight.

**Breaking pinwheel-**

Yue winced as she stepped back slightly, holding her left eye.

"Yue-sama?" Mana asked, noticing her lady's pain.

Yue uncovered her eye, the black pattern of her mangekyō now glowing a silvery white and warping into a new form, but only for the left eye. "D-Damn!" she grunted as phantom images starting appearing in the left side of her vision.

**Terms-**

**Shukujo-sama:** Lady (as in nobility)

**Translations-**

**Nǐ hǎo:** Hello

**Kěxiào:** Ridiculous

**Jutsu Index-**

**Rasen**: The second stage of the rasengan, or the spiral version of it that Jiraiya demonstrated to Naruto.

**Weapon Intro-**

**Aka Kubikirihōchō** [Red Decapitating Carving Knife] – An ōdachi constructed from the remains of the original Kubikirihōchō and Yue's blood. The blade is extremely sharp and, seemingly, much lighter than the original since Yue can wield it one handed with great speed and skill. The blade, due to being made mostly from Yue's blood, is capable of easily flowing electrical currents and is especially deadly in the hands of raiton users like Yue. The blade has lost no length, but is of a much lighter form.

It is unknown, at this time, if the blade can repair itself with blood, that is if it can be broken at all anymore.

**Kekkei tōta/genkai report-**

**Ruuko Sharingan:** While rare, the Ruuko clan's sharingan are quite powerful despite being weakened. The Ruuko are able to copy/mimic movements far better than an Uchiha, but their ability to copy ninjutsu is notably lower due to them only being able to see the chakra, not its flow. To a Ruuko, a ninja that is using elements presents a colored aura, giving them an idea of what the ninjutsu will be. If they see a black aura, it is either a secret technique or a bloodline technique, meaning it is unable to be copied. It is unknown if it is unique to her, but Yue is capable of minor 'telescoping' with her sharingan. All Ruuko's regular sharingan are mistaken for mangekyō due to the pattern being different from the Uchiha's, but it appears to be a slight mutation due to the Senju DNA they possess.

**Ruuko mangekyō Sharingan:** The only things known about the Ruuko's mangekyō is that they share numerous traits with the Uchiha's mangekyō such as: Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, genjutsu piercing/casting ability, control of tailed beasts, bleeding when using mangekyō techniques and eventual blinding. It is, at this time, unknown why Yue isn't losing her vision yet, but it seems to relate to her not awakening something. Due to genjutsu masking, it is currently unknown what pattern Yue's mangekyō take on.

**Reimyō Buki:** The Ethereal Arms, the kekkei tōta of the Ruuko clan. It is a series of jutsu that 'summon' weapons with strong elemental properties that temporarily grant the user the power of said element or enhances their latent powers. While they do grant the user the ability to use multiple elements, it doesn't teach them ninjutsu. This drawback means that, while the water sword grants water ninjutsu, the user must know some water jutsu to harness this aspect of the weapon's full power. Despite multiple elements being available, the summoning process is of the Ying-Yang 'element.'

Due to how little of them has been historically seen, it is currently unknown what the disadvantages this bloodline has, if any, or even what the blades are capable of.

**Omake~**

**A man's paradise-**

Yue was having a bad night, since she'd use the fell vision not too long ago. Nothing like a directly transmitted memory into the opponent's head with seemingly no backlash, aside from having to relive the same memory yourself for the next two or three days. Using it twice in one day made her have nightmares for the last week, tonight included.

Tayuya wrapped her arms around Yue's shoulder from the side, snuggling slightly. "Bad night?" she asked.

Mana snuggled up to Yue's other side, holding the hanyō's deceptively slim arm. "Yue-sama, you're suffering from using that technique again, aren't you?"

Yue blushed. She was a lesbian and she currently resided between two attractive women on a bed, even though one of them was her adopted sister and the other was a good friend and teammate. "No, I'm okay..." she lied.

"You're lying, Yue-sama," Mana stated, brushing hair out of her lady's face, "its not good to lie."

"I'm not lying," Yue insisted.

Tayuya smirked as she went from pillow to hanyō shoulder. "Yep, you're lying right now, nee-san."

"And how do you know that?" Yue shot back.

Mana smiled a bit, but Tayuya was the more open of the two. "Because you're sleeping in the nude."

Yue blushed a bit harder. "So what? I always sleep in the nude! We also always sleep in the same bed, so that's nothing new either!" In the past, Yue and Anko had shared a bed quite often. Yue just felt calmer when she could feel another person's warmth next to her.

Tayuya and Mana draped themselves on Yue's sides, making her blush even harder. "We know you're lying because you didn't notice that we're naked too," the former sound five member muttered in Yue's cat ear. Yue became inattentive when she was preoccupied.

"%( &#^!" Yue sputtered, the random noises not making any sense to any creature as she turned completely red, then fainted.

Tayuya chuckled at the reaction while Mana blushed at the way she was touching her lady.

In a completely different place, Jiraiya groaned as he had the distinct feeling that he was missing out on the mother lode of smut inspirations.

**Responses-**

** .3950:** Nice name, and I chose to respond to this review for some odd reason. (I'm weird like that) First and fore most, I was tired when I wrote Obito's name with an N, that and he is nothing more than a foot note (snickers) in the grand scheme of things. While it is true the war would never have happened without him, we can all see that he is nothing more than a disposable pawn to Madara.

**Kazehana Sora:** Well, I guess you already read that Yue is back. I've been reading too much TLR lately, since I can picture you cheering with red sun fans in hand.

**Sky Zephyrus:** Yeah, I brought the kitty back. I mean seriously, I did say that Ino and Yue would get into a relationship, along with another girl (points at Mana), so its quite obvious that I wouldn't permanently remove her from the story.

As for canon Sakura, her feelings for Naruto were buried long before that. If you paid attention, way back in the Forest of Death, Sakura tried to turn to Naruto for help, but forgot that he was also down. After that, she steadily becomes more and more aware of Naruto, to the point where she would even run towards a raging demi-demon in hopes of helping him. I think that Naruto got angry because she did love him, but she was trying to use his emotions against him while denying that she did still love Sasuke. My belief is that Sakura didn't want to kill Sasuke to prevent him from ruining his name anymore, she knew that if she let Sasuke live, she'd lose both of them rather than just one. She knows that, in spite of her loving him, Sasuke is a lost cause and he'll never look at her the way she wants him to. Sadly, she's probably decided that she's not good enough for Naruto either since she treated him so badly for most of their lives.

**The Keeper of Worlds:** Yep, turns out that the 'dead' OC was performing a little shadow clone puppet show. Eh, wait a second... Shadow clones can't suffer any damage, let alone fatal damage, without being dispelled...

**romanomanette:** Yeah, she's back and she is meant to be mysterious. I saw how Kishimoto steadily revealed more and more about Naruto and the jinchūriki and I decided that Yue would be presented in a similar way, with each answer bringing more questions.

And yeah, she's strong. She kicked Kabuto and Sasuke to the curb, where all the trash belongs. Too bad it wasn't the day you put out burnable trash...

**Firestar001:** Just like with Kazehana Sora, I can see you partying with those red sun fans. Yeah, her alter ego, Akane, did somewhat resemble her. As for calling Akane an alibi, I prefer the term 'disguise.'

**Yuri-Hime-Chan:** I'm guessing you didn't log in, no matter. She's back, not quite where she belongs though. Thanks for the idea of renaming this chapter. The new chapter title is much better.

**DarkLordK:** I...really don't know how to respond to spontaneous brain explosion, not unless it is zombie related. (what is said at that time is: BOOM! HEADSHOT!)

**Rose ContestShipping Fan88:** I just noticed that I have a lot of 'Shipping' fans. As for Sasuke killing Sakura the way Kakashi killed Rin, I have also seen that as the future those two will share if he is brought back and not rehabilitated (looking impossible unless Kishi decides to, yet again, make the manga about Sasuke and his awesomeness while, for lack of a better word, cockblocking Naruto and making everything he does seem useless compared to Sasuke's lameness) or locked up for all time.

I also do believe that Sakura is still in love with Sasuke, in canon, but she is acknowledging that nothing will ever happen between them. Maybe Sakura will consider Naruto, but I figure the manga will end with both Naruto and Sasuke killing each other, unless Kishi goes and makes this all about Sasuke again, just like most of Part I. If that happens, Naruto will probably kill himself from strain or kill the Jūbi, Madara and Obito with the Shinigami or a dead range super powered Rasenshuriken.

**RocketShipping fan:** Yes, I never intended to (permanently) kill Yue. I haven't gotten to Yue and her two wives doing anything aside from that meek confession and kiss from Part I. Things will be stormy though for the three girls, almost as stormy as Sakura's future appointment in Yue's Tsukuyomi is looking to be.

I'm thinking that Naruto will tell Sakura, in this fic, but it will be during the war, since he learned of his parents while he was being detained on that island.

**Super saiyan Sakura Haruno:** Yeah, as Yue pointed out, he's a pathetic waste of pencil, pen ink, toner and Kb on my computer. He boasts about all his skill and he has only killed nameless Oto-nin, who were put there because Orochimaru knew Sasuke could beat them, and all his enemies have suicided in some way, shape or form. The only opponent who he didn't beat (A) kicked his ass so bad that Taka had to retreat with Sasuke's busted ass in tow. Even his ultimate technique, Kirin, was blocked and broken like a cheap imitation of a jutsu.

Ah, I love Sasuke bashing.

**Sakura fan 55:** I've noticed a disturbing lack of creativity in some user names, but I must remember that most were just made to track favorite stories/authors, were spur of the moment or the person was much younger when they were made. Most people aren't using their semi-official pen name, like me.

Anyway, Ino isn't a hundred percent happy to learn that Yue's alive, since the cat girl has officially put herself at odds with Konoha. Their meeting won't happen til much later, but it will be disastrous. Let's just say that Ino will try to do two things to Yue that are unforgivable.

**NaruSaku fan 100:** Wut? Decoding line 1... Um, I think that you are asking who will lead Sakura to Naruto... Well, that's Yue as anyone can see.

I do believe that the only one getting Naruto in the end will be Shinigami. The whole thing about the main girl getting the main character has been around forever and I don't see it going away any time soon. By the way, it is mostly the first girl that is introduced in the series who gets the man, unless it's a proper harem manga/anime. Chronological appearances don't matter either, since I've seen anime where a girl met the guy years before and he wound up with another girl who appeared closer to the beginning of the series. Since Sakura was the first girl introduced, she'd be the most likely to get Naruto.

While on this subject, I do use the system as well, to some degree. I DO include chronological introductions as the 'first' meeting. In this fic, well, you'll see later on how the system works.

And as you said, but in the words of late 90's drug addicts, "the good shit is gone!" I miss fics like Naruto the Gilgamesh and a few others that inspired me to finally write, or inspired some of my ideas. A fic I have in the works, Ultimate Ninja SOLDIER, is a tribute to Naruto the Gilgamesh. (I added an airheaded, directionally challenged maid/SOLDIER girl to Naruto's life! MWAHAHAHAHA)

**Silentlinkmit339:** Let's just say that the plot is a very tightly bound rope...


	31. Blood rubies and pure pearls

Chapter 31: Blood rubies and pure pearls

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except the OC**

Team Kurenai had been specifically called upon to complete a mission, which wasn't too odd. Team Kurenai had, in the last three years, become one of the best tracking teams Konoha had as well as an extremely effective team of close to medium range combat specialists. They were fairly versatile, but they still weren't quite as well known as Team Asuma, but at least their fame was above Team Guy's, if only due to them not having a green spandex wearing, youth/hot blood shouting pair who were capable of using a horrifying, unbreakable genjutsu.

The target for the mission were objects the client had lost: some precious pearls. He had given details as to where they were being held, as well as a rough layout of the guards and their routes in the mansion. It was sad, but the client's long time friend was the one who currently possessed the pearls. They had been stolen and sold on the black market, that buyer later selling them as legitimately as stolen merchandise could be sold to the unaware. If the client had adequate proof that the gems were in fact his and they had been stolen, his friend would have gladly returned them, but he couldn't so they needed to be stolen back along with the paperwork linked to them.

Team Kurenai had been called in because, between the three of them, they could make it look like the black market dealer had snatched the gems and paperwork back to profit off them again. The three knew that there would be missions like this, but at least they were returning the jewels to their rightful owner. With the paperwork from the current owner, it could be traced back to the black market and everything could be cleared up.

Kurenai wasn't going on this mission due to a medical checkup she had to undergo at the time, as well as her personal dislike of such missions, but the three clan members would be able to easily handle this B-rank mission.

The location of the mansion was close to the Waterfall/Fire border. The time was two days after Team Kakashi ran into Sasuke and Yue. Team Kurenai had been outside of Konoha for the last three days, having met up with a contact to receive all the information they needed on the location.

They had no warning at all.

_[Outside the mansion, eastern approach]_

Hinata used her byakugan to survey the scene, finding only the stationary guards in place, performing lazy sweeps with their vision. "Seven guards, all at optimum defense points on the wall, both at the windows and on the wall walks," she reported. She didn't notice it, but she rarely stuttered during missions, or at least she had stopped doing it all the time sometime in the last three years. It also helped that Naruto was nowhere to be seen.

"What are they packing?" Kiba asked.

Hinata focused her vision on each one at a time to see what they had. "They all appear to be armed with swords and crossbows. One of them looks like he has a small ax as well."

"Nothing we can't handle," Shino stated.

"Still, this is an even lighter guard then we were told about..." Kiba muttered. Akamaru whined a bit.

Hinata deactivated her byakugan and looked at the large dog. "What's wrong with Akamaru?"

Kiba stroked the dog's head a bit, looking worried. "Don't really know, just that he doesn't like this place at all."

"Well, we can't really take him with us anyway, he's too big and all white," Hinata said. The group had all changed to dark blue versions of their regular clothes, complete with hoods and masks for Kiba and Hinata. Shino, for obvious reasons, didn't need a special sneaking outfit, just a darker variant of his normal clothes.

Kiba pat the dog's head. "Just stay here bud, howl if you notice danger." Akamaru panted a bit, then gave a growling woof, a quiet one, to say he understood.

"Alright, let's go," Shino said, moving forward as stealthily as possible.

With Hinata's byakugan and Kiba's nose, it was relatively easy to get up to the walls of the estate, a little more difficult to get in though. First, they had to look for a door that wasn't frequented. Last thing they needed was a guard to open the door they were picking because he had a few minutes to smoke. The second problem was picking the lock itself. The door had an old tumbler lock, which while easy to pick, were as noisy as hell with all the clicking and clanking. Kiba and Hinata flinched when the door they chose unlocked with a clang and made a horrible noise as they opened it. A quick scan of the area, by scent and byakugan, indicated that nobody had been alerted by the noise.

Shino quickly got everyone into a supply closet, which Kiba hated due to the stink of chemicals. Shino spread out a map on a stretch of blank wall. "We're around here," the bug user said, using a bug to point to the south eastern part of the estate. The insect quickly crawled over hallways and avoided all the red ones, which were frequently patrolled, sticking to unmarked halls and yellow ones, unguarded and lightly patrolled respectively. "We can use a multitude of routes to get to the objectives, but this is the clearest and most direct route," he explained. It wasn't too roundabout, but it wasn't exactly direct either.

"Remember to knock out any unexpected guards, then drag them out of view," Kiba said, a happy grin on his face.

Hinata nodded and the three returned to the door, which Hinata quickly scanned through with her byakugan. When she signaled that it was clear, Team Kurenai slipped out and began their little trek to finish the mission.

_[A little over fifteen minutes later]_

All of Team Kurenai were on edge. Despite their planning, advance knowledge and skills, this was proving to be too easy. Even the few guards they ran into were too quickly dispatched and tucked away in side rooms and closets.

"I'm starting to have a bad feeling about this mission," Kiba muttered, wishing they hadn't taken it. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end, like he was close to a huge electrical source. His teammates would later say the same thing.

The three reached the door and cursed their luck, since the entire room's walls and doors were laced with chakra seals, preventing Hinata from looking through it, Kiba from picking up any smells and even Shino's bugs couldn't find a crack to slip through. According to the map, the guards were in this room and it was an unknown number too. They could bust in an encounter one civilian guard or they could find themselves facing down a dozen highly skilled samurai or even ninja.

"Caution to the wind?" Shino asked, referring to Kiba's preferred method of doing things.

They nodded and Kiba ran at the wall opposite to the door, kicked off it and rammed the door with a, **"****t****sūga****!"**

The moment the door broke apart, all three were assaulted with the stench of fear, death, blood and a heavy, oppressive chakra rolled into them like a hurricane on a hot, dry wind. It suddenly made sense why the guards were stretch so thin, they weren't the only intruders.

Two women stood in the room. The taller of the two, but only by three inches, was dressed in an ANBU-like outfit, but she wore a steel face mask to cover the lower half of her face and an old style shinobi hood to hide all but her eyes. She dodged a slash from a sword and delivered swift, accurate strikes with her chakra coated hands to his armpits, thighs and neck. The man dropped his sword, then crumpled to the ground as he started dying. A quick glance with Hinata's byakugan showed that the woman had severed numerous veins and arteries, killing the man without spilling a drop of blood. The jutsu of choice was obviously a chakra scalpel, her skill with it beyond frightening.

The other woman is one that Team Kurenai would have known about had Team Kakashi been a slight bit faster. Standing there, holding a badly wounded samurai guard was Kazeneko Yue, rogue Ruuko and missing-nin, but Team Kurenai couldn't recognize her due to her greatly changed appearance as well as the hate filled sharingan that she had locked on the man. She had the man's own sword in her hand, the end broken from some unknown attack or defense she had used before taking it from him.

"Pwease... I have a wife and daughter..." he tried, a number of his teeth missing from whatever beating he had received. She was holding him up by pressing his head against the wall.

Yue answered by stabbing him in the diaphragm with his own sword, then ripping it out and plowing two inches of it through his chest, piercing his airway. "Don't think your begging will be answered. I heard them, the men you killed, the women you raped, the children you left to die without family. Your wife and child are better off without you," she said, dropping the suffocating man to the floor. Yue drew Aka Kubikirihōchō, swiping down to cleave a nearby desk in two.

"Hiiiii!" A relatively fit man, who was just starting to soften from age, shrieked as he scampered back from the sliced desk. "W-wait! I can p-pay you more! I'll give you anything you want, just don't kill me!"

"Kasaka Minoru, former noble of Kumogakure and the real perpetrator behind the infamous Hyūga Affair," Yue stated.

Hinata tensed up, realizing that this related to her. _'But wasn't it Kumogakure as a whole that was part of the plot to kidnap me?'_

"I d-don't know what you're talking about! Th-that was all the Raikage's doing!" the man, Minoru shouted.

"While Kumo was ready to be at peace with Konoha, you paid the Head of their shinobi, at the time, to perform a side job for you: collect Hyūga Hinata and leave a fake corpse of himself to ensure that you gained the Byakugan as well as kept making money off your... business ventures," Yue said.

"Business ventures?" Hinata muttered, not liking how those words were said.

It was only now that Yue noticed them, though Team Kurenai squirmed under the freezing gaze of her sharingan. She turned away from them, focusing on the pitiful man before her. "Selling weapons to either side for exorbitant profit, collecting war orphans and selling them off as slaves, selling enhancement drugs to weaker shinobi and forcing the men to 'loan' their lovers to whore houses to pay for recovery/stamina drugs," she listed off, then got a disgusted look on her face, "I wonder if there is any truth to the rumors of you opening a... 'special interest' whore house, one that dealt with the children, specifically the very young daughters, of your poorer clients."

Everyone in the room, aside from Yue and Minoru, paled. Hinata realized that, after the man had torn out her eyes, he might have... no, would have sold her to be...used. The thought was horrible.

"N-NO! I would never do that!" the man shouted.

Yue closed her eyes, hearing something no other being could. "Deny all you want, those who you have wronged are calling out to you from Hell, where you sent them with your greed and debauchery, where they pay for YOUR actions. They want to be the ones to force you through things, though you may not like half of what is waiting for you!" she finished, opening her eyes and locking gazes with the man.

Minoru turned as white as bleached bones. "What are those? Those aren't sharingan!"

"Mangekyō Sharingan. Now suffer! **Enton: ****Kutsū****!"** Yue declared as she glared at the man, red/black flames raging out of her right eye to consume the man. He screamed in agony as the flames swallowed him. Yue took a few swords from the dead guards and pinned the man down with them, stabbing them into his burning limbs. "Say hello to Hyūga Hizashi-san for me, he wants to pull your eyes out this time..." Yue stated as she walked to the door as she put the red sword onto her back. "Mana! We are done here."

Mana, the kunoichi with the chakra scalpels, deactivated her jutsu and followed.

"Wait!" Hinata shouted.

Yue turned to her, her eyes cold and back to their sharingan form, slowly drying blood under both her eyes. "What is it, Hyūga Hinata?"

"That man, is he really the one who caused the Hyūga clan, caused Neji-nii-san to suffer so much?" Hinata demanded.

Yue nodded. "And he would have succeeded had I not killed him."

"What do you mean?" Kiba asked.

"Look in a mirror Hyūga, and you'll understand," Yue said, then she and Mana were gone with shunshin.

Hinata didn't get it, but Shino grabbed her shoulder to get her attention. "Hinata, we have to get going, those flames will consume this whole building soon enough."

"But the pearls!" Kiba snapped, looking around frantically.

"The pearls are, as that woman hinted at, Hinata's eyes. This was all a setup so he could kill us, take Hinata's eyes and probably force her to breed, most likely as a bargaining chip to get back into Kumo," Shino said, frowning at the last part. Hinata was his teammate and he should have realized this was all a plot to get at her. He felt indebted to that Uchiha woman and would thank her next time, hopefully not before he was to capture her.

Kiba, as a way of getting at the man, took up another sword and plunged it through the man's groin, jumping when he screamed in pain. "Shit, he's still alive. She really wants the fucking bastard to suffer," the dog nin muttered as he backed off.

"Kiba-kun, I'm telling Tsume-san and Hana-san about that," Hinata warned, referring to Kiba's swearing.

"Please don't!" Kiba begged as the three took the quickest route out of the building: through a nearby window and across the roof to head back to where Akamaru was waiting.

_[Next morning, around noon]_

"I stink..." Kiba muttered, referring to the stench he picked up in that room. Soot, blood, fear and... was that urine? Ugh, he knew he wasn't the cleanest guy around, but even he was done with this stink. Akamaru was too, since he kept a good distance from his partner.

Hinata remained silent, wishing she could just dive into some water until the smell was washed away.

Shino was good, since his bugs had already helped him remove pretty much all the smell from his body. His clothes from last night, on the other hand, were going straight into the laundry for a day or two. Besides, Shino's bugs didn't really like hot springs all that much, too humid. All Aburame took cool showers and they hardly ever turned their heaters on too high, which resulted in the clan's very low utility bills every month.

Kiba snorted to clear his nose, then picked up a nice smell he knew about. "Hot springs!" he declared, getting a happy yip from his dog as the two tore down the road, wanting to take a bath.

"K-Kiba-kun! Akamaru! Wait for m-me!" Hinata called, running to catch up.

Shino sighed and followed at a leisurely pace, not really needing a bath. Maybe he'd grab a cool shower instead.

_[Bathhouse, ten minutes later]_

Ring! Ring!

"Welcome, customer-san, how can I assist you?" the girl at the front desk greeted.

Team Kurenai walked in, Akamaru included. "Just smell that air! I'm going to enjoy this!" Kiba exclaimed.

The girl at the desk, one Kazeneko Tayuya, stiffened when she saw Kiba. _'Shiiiiit! It's nin__-__mutt! Fucking hell, how am I going to get out of this one?'_ she thought as she stared at him, a nervous blush on her face. Hopefully, her hair being in a pony tail, the small smile and her (forced) gentle look would trick him. "W-Well, customer-san, what would you like?" She even added a sweet tone to her voice that made her want to grab Orochimaru and punch his teeth down his throat, then stick nails through his eyes and twist them, all while swearing enough to make the entire world's population blush.

It worked, sort of. Kiba didn't recognize her, but he did make a mistake when he noticed her blush, stuttering and sweet tone. Kiba smirked and ran a hand through his hair, taking center stage. "Well, well. If you're interested, maybe we can hook up later?" he drawled, resting against the counter on one elbow, bringing his face quite close to the girl's.

_'Oh hell no! If I had no choice and was forced to dig through the bottom of the trash can, I'd take on that bushy browed green thing rather than you!'_ Tayuya thought, but a strained smile remained on her face and she said, "c-cutomer-san, we don't offer those services."

"Oh but I do. Course, you'll have to visit Konoha for them," Kiba went on, still thinking that he might have found himself a good looking girlfriend.

Click! "Oh, Tae-chan! Is another customer bothering you?" the bath house master asked as he walked in. Team Kurenai looked oddly at the bear of the man. He was tall, muscular and looked like he was sturdy enough to take Tsunade's fist to his groin without flinching. What caught their attention was the pink tank top and white short shorts, both stretched over the slabs of muscle under the man's tanned skin. He also had a hint of blush on his cheeks. His long hair was pulled back into a braided pony tail and he didn't remove any hair on his body aside from a bit of grooming on his face, to give him a smart mustache and a small goatee on his chin. It was disturbing to say the least.

"M-Master..." the poor young woman muttered.

The man smiled. "Just tell him the truth, that always gets everyone off Tae-chan's back!"

Tayuya looked dead into Kiba's eyes, then bowed slightly. "Sorry, customer-san, but if I had to offer those services to anyone in your group, it would be the busty chick in back."

Kiba recoiled as if he'd been punched. "Y-You meant that all this time, I-I've been h-h..."

"Hitting on Tae-chan, a lesbian~" the bath house master gently cheered, making even Shino cringe.

Akamaru laughed at his owner's blunder.

Kiba crumpled. While many assumed he had eyes for Hinata, that would be like saying he had the hots for his sister, Hana. He had briefly, at one point, thought of pursuing the pale eyed girl, but decided she was far too meek for his tastes. Kiba wanted a girl who, when angry, would throw things at him, chase him around with a frying pan or threaten to castrate him with a piece of wood. He wanted a fighter, a woman with spirit. Hinata had, instead, become like the gentle little sister he'd never had. He had looked at other girls, but decided that Ino was too loud for his tastes, Tenten was already after Neji and Sakura was just too fixated on Sasuke, completely missing out on Naruto. Kiba honestly felt for Naruto, knowing that the blond would treat Sakura like she was a queen if he was given a chance. The medic didn't know what she was missing by ignoring Naruto. He also didn't want to seem like an ass by hounding after Sakura when he knew of Naruto's feelings for her. Kiba was respectful of his friends, even if he called them names. It was just how he did things. If he didn't insult you, you were just an acquaintance or your feelings were too easily hurt.

_'This makes it two times I considered a lesbian... Could I be into lesbians?'_ Kiba thought. Yeah, he'd actually considered Yue when he learned of her real age, figuring that she'd blossom soon enough. If she had grown to look closer to her real age, and was still alive, Kiba figured he could have gotten with her after trying enough. Ino would never date another girl and, maybe with time, he'd have been be able to make the hanyō think of dating a man, or rather, Kiba himself. With all his options gone, Kiba had started looking outside the village, to the various women he met on his travels, women like that one from last night.

He thought of that Uchiha beauty he'd seen yesterday. Damn, he had the best dream ever after that. She was a fighter! In that dream, it was like a war between who would be in charge. Kiba, unknowingly, drooled while remembering a dream about yet another lesbian, one that he actually knew too.

"Customer-san, would you three be using the baths today?" Tayuya asked, wondering why she wanted to deck the drooling mutt-boy with something harder than his skull, then drown him in a hot spring, "we also have a separate bath for nin-dogs, since we serve them as well."

"Oooh! Let's go, Akamaru!" Kiba cheered.

Tayuya smirked. "The smaller one is for nin-dogs, the larger for ninja. Inuzuka-san, please remember to use the smaller one."

"Yeah! Hey, what did you say?!" Kiba shouted as Akamaru laughed again. Even Hinata stifled a giggle. Shino smirked, but it was hidden behind his collar.

Then it hit Hinata like a ton of bricks. "W-wait... The larger bath is for ni-ninja?" Tayuya nodded. "T-then i-i-i-it's..."

"Co-ed~" the bath master cooed.

Hinata blushed hard and squeaked.

"If you want, we can have a divider put up. It slices the bath completely in two and, as an added bonus, it is laden with chakra so it cannot be peeked through with jutsu or dōjutsu. All of our baths are surrounded by genjutsu so that, if you don't have an unobstructed view from inside the baths, you only ever see naked sumo wrestlers," Tayuya said.

"Y-YES!" Hinata yelped as her blush died down a tiny bit.

The bath house master nodded. "YU-CHAN! BATH FOUR NEEDS A DIVIDER!"

'Yu-chan' didn't answer, but they did hear the noise of something that sounded like metal rolling along metal, fading a bit after a second or two. Team Kurenai paid for the bath service.

"Bath four is where you guys want to go, just in case you didn't know already," Tayuya said, pointed down a long, wide hallway.

Team Kurenai went down the hall, happy to see that each bath had gender split changing rooms. When they got to four, Shino said he'd wait outside for them. After a few minutes to change out of their clothes and putting towels on, the remaining members of Team Kurenai went to the outdoor baths.

Rattle, rattle, clank!

Kiba, Akamaru and Hinata had all walked out at the same time and were shocked to witness the dividing wall lowered into place. There was a metal track overhead and a kind of mini-crane system in place to ferry the walls around as well as put them down, but it wasn't automated. The walls, which were about a foot thick, seven feet long and eight feet high, were pulled around the track by thick metal cords and the walls were brought down by using a long lever that would operate the crane. It was quite obvious that the walls were housed on the small shack built onto the roof of the place and the workers dragged them about while walking on the rooftops.

This particular wall had been brought in by one person, and one person only: the same woman that they had seen yesterday. Due to her work, and the humidity, she had tied her hair back into a low ponytail with a red ribbon, miko style. Didn't stop her wildly spiky locks from looking sort of like the long dead Uchiha she had impersonated, it actually made her hair even spikier. She wore a standard bath house worker's kimono, though she had a pair of kunai and six shuriken hidden on her.

Kiba moved so fast one would think he either had the swift release or he'd somehow mastered the Yondaime Hokage's Hiraishin, but he was really just getting desperate for a girlfriend. "Hey there sexy, how about we go on a date after my bath is done?" he drawled after brushing his hair back with his hand. That was like his...swag move or something. He honestly thought girls liked it.

"Not happening. I don't date dogs that mark themselves," the woman said.

"Well, if you must know, it isn't mine. My skills are so mighty that my opponent's bowels couldn't contain themselves," Kiba stated, not really thinking.

"The bladder is what handles urine, dog breath," the woman said as she grabbed the top of the wall and yanked down, popping it off the crane and driving it down onto the connecting seals. With a brief bolt of chakra into the wall at the moment of contact, the seals activated and it was as if the wall had been there from the beginning.

"Either way, why won't you go out with me? I'll have you know that I can be a perfect gentleman," Kiba said. He liked this girl even more since she was strong and wouldn't back down from an argument.

"Three things. Third, I doubt you could keep up with my stamina," the woman said, making sure the genjutsu seals were working by examining the wall with her sharingan.

"Um, aren't you supposed to start from one?" Kiba asked as he sat in the bath. Akamaru went to his dog bath and hopped in. Hinata, on the other side of the wall, noted that it only blocked visuals and not sound. She sighed, loving the bath already.

"Second, I'm a missing-nin," the woman said. Kiba shrugged. While it rarely happened, missing-nin did sometimes join hidden villages, though it was normally their own village. "First, I'd rather go after the Hyūga on the other side of this wall. She's a real cutie and her curves can be described with the drawn out word: daaaamn," the woman finished.

Akamaru laughed at his owner again, since he'd set a new record by hitting on two lesbians during the same day. Hinata turned even redder and sunk down in the bath until it was almost up to her nose.

"Wh-what is with this place? Is it the fairy hot springs or something?" Kiba wondered aloud.

"Nope, just a safe zone for missing-nin. It just so happens that two of the five people working here today are only attracted to their own gender, Inuzuka Kiba," the woman said, turning to face the young man with her sharingan deactivated for the first time since he'd gotten there.

Kiba's eyes widened. "What... B-but! You're dead!"

"Keh. It'd take more than Emo-shorts to take me down. Well, he is wearing pants now, so I guess he's been upgraded to Emo-pants," the woman stated.

"Who is it, Kiba-kun?" Hinata asked, concerned.

"Team 7's Kazeneko Yue!" he barked, then wrinkled his nose, "why can't I smell cats?"

Yue smirked and gestured to the water. "I use these baths all the time when I work here. The salts and herbs kill my scent for a few days." Kiba got up to fight, but Yue forced him back into the water with a foot placed on the juncture of his neck and shoulder. "Drunken masters I can handle, but I don't ever want to fight a naked master. Wait until after the bath, then you can get beaten to a pulp and rest in bath 10. Trust me, that place works wonders for all kinds of injuries," she said as she walked into the changing rooms to leave.

"Wait!" Kiba shouted, only to stop when the bath master appeared, a fearsome aura burning off him.

"Customer-san, I must ask you to save all disputes with my employees until after you have finished bathing," he said.

"But-!" Kiba started as he got up.

The man, surprisingly, slammed his hands together as chakra filled the area. With that thunderous clap, the water on Kiba's body got extremely heavy, forcing him down into the spring again. "I will not repeat myself! If you insist on spoiling your bath, I will double the fee and you will have to deal with me as well as all my cute employees," the man said as he turned around.

_[Twenty minutes later, a training ground behind the resort]_

"You sure we can use this place? You know that I'm not exactly environmentally friendly," Yue said as she slammed Aka Kubikirihōchō into the ground before her.

The bath master laughed. "You should know by now, Yu-chan, that I'm not exactly buddy buddy with the environment either."

"Oh yeah, I remember you saying that you cleared this area yourself. Still, ripping trees out by their roots with your bare hands is a bit much, even if you replanted them," Yue said.

Shino and Hinata moved to positions on either side of Kiba. "What are you two doing?" he asked.

"She is a friend of our friend, so we will assist you," Shino said.

Hinata nodded. "Naruto-kun will be ha-happy if we bring her back."

Yue chuckled as Tayuya stepped up to her side. "So you're assisting this time?"

Tayuya nodded as she undid her hair tie, her hair falling to its regular style. "How should I assist, nee-san?"

Yue thought for a few moments. "Team Kurenai, a proper team. While they don't have the raw power of Team Kakashi, their teamwork is third only to Team Asuma, which is second to the senior Ino-Shika-Cho trio. I say watch Shino the most, Aburame insects may not have much of an affect on me, but the bug clones are annoyances. Stay out of Kiba's line of sight, since his jutsu are pretty much straight shots. Hinata, just stay out of her reach unless you want to be reduced to a drooling mess."

Tayuya nodded, "can I have my flute spear?" Yue shook her head. "Nee-san! Stingy~"

Yue chuckled. "Well then, shall we begin?"

Kiba and Akamaru took the lead as Kiba attempted to strike with a speedy punch. The two missing-nin dodged it, Yue avoiding Akamaru's tackle and sprung off his shoulders. Yue only realized it was a feint when she felt a brief pulse of chakra behind her, the slight warning to Hinata's attack. Using her cat demon traits, Yue twisted in mid-air to face the heiress and caught her wrists, deflecting the attack to either side. It was at this moment that Yue noticed something.

"Nyuuuu!" Yue... yeah, nobody knew what to call that noise. With only that weird...keening as a warning, Yue grabbed Hinata's shoulders and performed what could only be described as a manual shoulder check into her, knocking both to the ground with barely enough force to kick up some dust.

"Hinata!" Kiba and Shino shouted as they ran to the cloud of dust, reaching out to throw Yue off.

The dust cleared and...

"HYAAA!" Hinata shrieked as Yue... fondled her.

"Oh my~" the bath house master cooed with a faint blush, "looks like Yu-chan's switch has been flipped."

Shino and Kiba stopped, their outreaching hands now useless due to the blushes both had, making them look like perverts who wanted to assist the hanyō in molesting the dark blue haired girl.

Tayuya was sweating a bit. "Nee-san..."

"What the... Where did you hide these things? HOW did you hide them?" the nineteen year old hanyō demanded, her hands all over Hinata's chest, straddling her hips. It was understandable why the boys were blushing now.

"I don't knooooooooow!" Hinata whined. She saw an opening and hit Yue in the shoulder, sealing a few of the tenketsu located there. With the grip broken, she got onto her hands and knees, scampering away.

Yue pounced, looping her arms under Hinata's and returning to her earlier assault. "Damn! How can you be a kunoichi with these weapons of mass enjoyment?! You're balance must be off all the FUCKING TIME!" she roared in a jealous fit of rage.

(At this time in Konoha, Sakura and Tenten felt extremely pissed off for some reason)

By now, Kiba had lost enough blood through his nose that his face had gotten a bit pale. Shino looked away, thin ribbons of blood under his nose. Tayuya was wishing she had a girlfriend. The bath master was wondering if Yue would end the day with a girlfriend.

Yue abruptly stopped, a dull blush spreading across his face. "Why do I suddenly have a craving for warm milk?"

Hinata went pale, Kiba's nose exploded, Tayuya wondered if she'd have a sister-in-law soon and Shino swooned from the sudden rush of blood to his face.

The bath house master remained silent, having heard Yue talk about her past and how she lost her family. _'More than likely, rather than a sexual craving, it is more like a childhood one. Yue's mother was taken from her when she was very young, so by touching a girl with motherly __assets__, Yue's __old instinct to breastfeed has awoken__... __Either that or Yu-chan's __a__ kinky__-kinky girl__!__'_

Akamaru got a hold of Yue's collar and pulled her off Hinata, accidentally making Yue's jacket open up and revealed her midriff exposing, sleeveless black top. What caught the attention of Shino was the bandages wrapped around Yue's entire torso, much like Ino had done when she was younger. Of course, Ino's were never slightly reddened from injuries beneath them.

"Yue-san, how did you receive such injuries?" Shino questioned.

Yue huffed as she swung her legs, freeing herself from Akamaru's jaws. "A really big kitty disagreed with me petting her head and scritching her chin, so she tried to rip my innards out. Now that I'm back to normal, let's finish this."

"B-but you're wounded, Y-Yu-Yue-san," Hinata managed. Her and her teammates rarely drew blood due to their fighting styles, so this was a relatively new experience, seeing horrible wounds such as Yue's.

"Don't worry, I doubt you three will make me agitate the wounds, or hit me bad enough to reopen them," Yue stated as she closed her jacket again, "well, don't treat me like an invalid and come at me! If you don't," she crouched into a more feral stance, her hands held like claws, "I'll come for you!"

Shino lifted his arms, commanding the bugs he'd already released to swarm Yue from behind, all while making it look like he was using his bugs for the first time.

"Trivial," Yue muttered, then exploded, vaporizing Shino's bug swarm.

Hinata's eyes widened, then she used her byakugan to search around for the girl. She had only realized it was a clone when its chakra system started to overload, but she didn't think it would explode like that.

Sadly, Team Kurenai was facing off against a student of Mitarashi Anko, a brilliant strategist who specialized in using the battleground itself against a foe.

Yue's hands burst out of the ground, catching Shino by surprise as she yanked him down, burying him up to his chin. Yue didn't emerge from the ground like normal and instead stayed below, like a shark looking for a stray swimmer. Shino automatically started getting ants to assist in his freedom.

Hinata cursed herself, since she hadn't bothered to scan the underground. Most ninja didn't resort to going underground like Yue had, since it required good hearing, good chakra control to remain well hidden and they couldn't tell what jutsu their opponent was preparing, if traps were being set or how many reinforcements had arrived.

Yue burst from the ground behind Akamaru, jumping onto his back with a grin on her face. "I remember this puppy. He was so little and fluffy before. Hmm, maybe Kiba should let his mother or sister wash you from now on, since your fur is a bit rough," Yue commented, laying down on the large dog's back to rest for a moment, hugging him a bit.

"Akama-" Kiba started, but noticed his partner's expression. Akamaru was scared of the girl on his back. Kiba was kind of dense to his opponent's power sometimes, even to this day, but Akamaru never was and did his best to let Kiba know. Akamaru was staring straight forward, his tail was straight down and his muscles were completely rigid with fear.

"Come on, Akamaru, just because I'm a strong predator doesn't mean I'll kill anyone here," Yue said to the dog, sitting up and scratching him behind one of his ears, making his tail wag slightly, "relax, I'll just give you guys some scratches and aching bruises at most. That's why the master reserved bath 10 for you guys."

Kiba was about to go to his partner's aid when Tayuya, with her curse seal active, attempted to land a blow on him. Kiba jumped back, activating his clan's trademark Shikyaku no Jutsu. "Out of my way, bitch!" he snapped.

Without warning, Kiba was bodily lifted off the ground by his arm, flung into the air, then kicked hard enough that he smacked into the wall surrounding the grounds. He couldn't even use kawarimi with how quickly it happened.

"Call my imōto a bitch again and I'll make you my bitch, _**Kiba**__**!"**_ Yue snapped, her curse seal partially activating from her anger and covering her shoulders and neck with jagged bolt markings, the chakra arms starting to form as the skin on her back became heavily tanned from the power of the curse seal. The whole time, the seal and its marks glowed a bright white, almost like lightning.

_'Damn, I thought kaa-san and nee-san hit hard, Yue's got some power,'_ Kiba thought as he lifted himself up, recognizing her transformation from when he'd fought those creepy twins. "So you part of Oto as well?" he asked, figuring Oto-nin could all do that.

Yue frowned, leaving the curse seal at a half activation. _**"Never in a million years, I merely received a power from ****hebi-homo****. I fully intend to cut that bastard's head off and watch his jaws work as he dies, just as soon as I sever my connection to him."**_

"Connection?" Shino asked, his eye brow rising slightly.

"_**Unlike other curse seals, mine has a strong connection to Orochimaru, far stronger than it should be. Until I figure out how to remove that troublesome aspect of my seal, I can't kill him,"**_ Yue admitted. She didn't want to find out what the 'special' function of her seal was by killing the man, so he'd need to keep breathing for a while. Luckily, Tayuya had been wrong about the seals, they did not have the power to alter their victim's personality if they had the willpower to resist the corruption, it just granted them power while forcing their own natural strengths to increase and, over time, make it so that the barrier between their curse seal state and their normal state blurred, making it so that the use of the curse seal took less and less of a toll on the user as well as granting them 'interesting' abilities.

Shino had, once more, ringed Yue with his bugs after regaining his freedom. Yue knew from the look on Hinata and Shino's faces (or what little of it she could see) that they knew she hadn't created a clone to take this tactic, that they had the real Yue caught. Yue grinned as her curse seal receded. _**"Well, it seems tha**_t you got me this time..."

Shino's nod was barely noticeable as his fingers twitched slightly, telling his bugs to attack.

"**Kura Rensha!"** Yue snapped, her curse seal glowing purple as the purple/black energy burst off her body, pushing Shino's bugs back and confusing them. Yue herself felt a moment of vertigo, realizing that while she could use the technique, it put a great strain on her mind and body if she wasn't using her curse seal. She needed more time and training with the curse seal to, hopefully, lessen the backlash. She didn't notice it then, but dark purple veins had risen up around the curse seal, which was inflamed like a fresh bruise.

Kiba and Akamaru noted Yue's stance was off and took advantage of it. **"Gatsūga!"** Kiba declared as the two rushed at the girl. Yue caught the sound and the direction it came from, barely rolling out of the way. As she finished her roll, Yue was caught off guard again by the stealthy Hinata, who blew Yue away with a pair of palm strikes to the shoulders, sending her rolling backward.

"Good one Hinata!" Kiba praised, making the girl blush a bit.

Yue growled as she rolled onto her stomach and forced her arms to assist in standing up in spite of their numb state. When she was on her feet, she focused her chakra and unsealed all the tenketsu in her shoulders, grunting in pain as feeling returned to her arms. "Don't start singing praises yet. It will take more than a few hits from a group of chūnin to put me down," Yue stated.

Kiba smirked. "I already knew that. Damn! Why couldn't you be straight?" he asked at the end, frustrated at his lack of romantic options.

Yue activated her sharingan, ignoring Kiba's outburst, glaring at the three. "Come on, let's have some fun..."

Kiba and Hinata instantly noticed the difference when they rushed at the hanyō. They had landed hits on the agile half demon before, but now that her sharingan were active, she kept moving out of the way, even going so far as to dodge Hinata's jūken with bare inches between the girl's fingers and Yue's body.

She was taunting them, showing them the gap between their skill and her own.

Yue, growing bored of being able to see everything that came her way, deactivated her sharingan. "This is getting tedious... At this rate, I'll die of boredom before you manage to defeat me..."

Kiba smirked as he and his dog wound up for their trademark jutsu.

Yue's frown changed into what could only be described as surprise, like she just realized something, which the tricky kitty just did.

"**Gatsūga!"** Kiba roared as he and Akamaru spun at the hanyō. Yue dropped back, the taijustu maneuver barely missing her as she lay flat on the ground.

"Oh! So that's how its done. I always thought that it was more complicated than that," Yue muttered to herself as she flipped back onto her feet.

"What are you talking about?" Shino asked.

Yue gave the three a feral grin, her once small and cute fangs being a bit more dangerous looking now that she was nineteen. "Kiba's trademark jutsu, the tsūga. I just figured out how they work. Given enough time, I may be able to copy them."

"That's not possible!" Kiba shouted, "clan jutsu are hiden jutsu, meaning that even the sharingan cannot copy them!"

"Yu-chan is a little different from normal," the bath master said, "Yue has a body suited to taijutsu that is extremely rare. Her brain and nervous system are even more rare in this world, barely owned by 1% of the world's total population."

"**_A rare body __and mind__?"_** Tayuya wondered. She knew her sister was unusually talented in physical arts, but was it due to her body structure and the way her brain worked?

The man nodded. "Yu-chan was unfortunate enough to be born without any instinctive responses to harmful stimuli."

"What the hell does that mean?" Kiba asked.

"I don't have any self preservation reflexes, meaning my brain isn't hard wired to respond to any form of harm my body can suffer. Plain and simple, I don't flinch, not unless I want to," Yue said.

"And because of that, Yu-chan has total and complete control of all her non-essential muscles. She is able to move the way she wills, so long as it doesn't go against natural bone limitations, and can master any taijutsu maneuver that doesn't require kekkei genkai or specialized ninjutsu," the man explained.

_'With a body like that, it means she can master taijutsu that require perfect muscle control with ease. No wonder she is so skilled with Guy-sensei and Lee-san's taijutsu,'_ Shino thought.

"The only disadvantage I have is that I am more than willing to push through a hail of shuriken to get at an opponent's throat. I don't care what state my body is in, just so long as I can keep moving and survive," Yue said.

"She can't do it, she doesn't know Shikyaku no Jutsu..." Kiba muttered to himself.

Yue grinned "Go ask Naruto and Sakura how I won all of our races before, you might change your mind about that. Well, it would take a lot more training to be able to use the Inuzuka moves, even to a small degree," she said, then smirked, "I have my own tactics that are more than effective. I'm not like an Uchiha, I don't need to steal moves to be an effective ninja."

"What do you mean?" Hinata demanded, staying in stance.

Yue chuckled. **"Kage bunshin no jutsu."** Three clones appeared next to her in small puffs of dark, expended chakra. "Well," one said. "Let's," the next said. "Find," the third said. "OUT!" the fourth shouted as all four Yue copies rushed the Hyūga. There was a brief and frantic clash, with Hinata striking all four at seemingly the same time. A large cloud of smoke billowed out from the three clones as Hinata coughed on the heavy scent of ash.

"Hinata, are you alright?" Kiba shouted as the cloud cleared.

"I-I'm fine, Kiba-kun," Hinata said.

"What? M-Me?" Hinata stuttered, or at least it seemed to be another Hinata.

The first Hinata looked to the second, looking just as stunned. It must have been a shock to everyone present when both reached out like one was a reflection in a mirror, their palms meeting. Even the two identical girls jumped back slightly, moving the exact same way at the exact same time.

"What is this?" the second asked.

The first Hinata looked around, nervous. "Th-this must be a trick, a genjutsu. The sh-sharingan."

Kiba scratched at the side of his head. In terms of...well, everything, the girls both acted like Hinata. "I'm confused... Akamaru, can you tell the difference?" he asked. The dog shook his head, even his nose being unable to pick up anything other than bath salts and ash.

Shino looked from one girl to the other. Perfectly duplicated appearance, perfectly duplicated mannerisms and even his bugs couldn't tell the difference between the two.

The first took up a stance. "You m-must by Yue-san in a henge!" she declared.

The second stumbled back a step. "What? But I'm the r-real Hinata! You must be saying that to tr-trick Kiba-kun and Shino-kun!"

The first Hinata's eyes hardened, as did her stance. "Lies. You are the fake," she said.

The second took up a stance as well, though she looked worried.

Before either one could strike, a thump sounded behind Kiba. He turned and was shocked to see Hinata, tied up and gagged. "What? But then..." he turned to look at the two Hinata copies before him.

"Che, she just had to fall over," the first said in Hinata's voice, but in a very un-Hinata way.

"Well, we only had a few moments to set it all up. Had they gone in separate baths, we could have replaced her and gotten all the way to the gates of Konoha before anyone noticed," the second stated, also using Hinata's voice. Hinata didn't talk like a guy, so she was a fake too.

The two shimmered, their forms returning to that of Yue. "Hyūga Hinata performance: failed due to prisoner escape," they said together, bowing slightly.

"What the hell?!" Kiba shouted, confused.

"So you, like a normal house cat, posses the ability to mimic things..." Shino stated.

One of the Yue's chattered a bit, then smirked. "Of course, Shino-san," she said, sounding almost the same as Sakura.

Everyone was surprised, even Yue's teammates didn't know the hanyō could mimic another person's voice. Very few people in Konoha knew of Yue's mimicry abilities, such as Naruto and Anko.

"Oh, so we're doing that this time?" the second Yue asked, sounding like Tenten.

"Th-they're using chakra to sound like them, right?" Kiba asked, seriously worried now.

Shino didn't think so. The voices, while good, had slight differences from the original girls' voices. Of course, you'd need to either have a really good sense of hearing or know the two girls very well to do that. His eyes widened. "We're...you're prey..."

The two Yue's grinned, their forms changing to become Shino and Kiba. "Of course," the Shino copy stated.

"What else-" the Kiba copy started.

"Would you be?"

The boys turned and were surprised to see their tied up 'teammate' standing there, a confident grin on her face with the ropes in her hand.

_'From the very beginning, we've been in an elaborate trap,'_ Shino thought, wondering what else Yue had set up.

Tayuya's eyes were spinning slightly. _'Nee-san was...there...I think? But now she's...there? I-I don't know what's going on anymore...'_

"Signs that you are about to die in a mission!" the bath master suddenly shouted, "you begin to doubt yourself! You're eyes start to wander the battleground! You shake in fear! Or, worst of all..." he brought his hands up into a familiar and seal, "you are completely at the mercy of the enemy's genjutsu! **KAI!**"

The two boys were stunned when the scene shimmered, then it cleared up to reveal the same scene, but Hinata cowering behind Akamaru, and the addition of four more Yue copies, two transformed into Kiba and Shino. There was even another Akamaru.

"Ah man, that ruined my fun..."

Everyone looked off to the side, seeing Yue sitting on a tree stump, her sharingan's spin slowing to a stop. "To think it was still able to be broken so easily, my Nise Sekai needs more work." She got onto her feet, brushing dirt off her clothes.

"This whole time, you had us in an illusion?!" Kiba shouted.

"Nope, just since I ran at Hinata. I caught everyone in it using my clones as proxies. Reality was replaced with illusion when Hinata destroyed the second to last shadow clone. I replaced the destroyed ones to keep the illusion going," Yue explained, "and my clones are capable of the same things I am, so yes, I can mimic you guys quite well. All I need is time to observe, learn their habits, copy their voices and then I can replace a person quite easily, so long as nothing unexpected happens. Henge perfects the issues I have with copying voices, such as the tone of a man's voice. My husky voice only goes so far."

With all those around her stunned at her surprisingly good plan, another Yue, the real one, burst out of the ground and Kiba found himself rising due to her uppercut. Before he could truly react, Yue delivered a few harsh blows before grabbing his leg and chucking him at the ground, quite hard too.

"Kiba-kun!" Hinata cried out as she and Shino ran over to him. He didn't respond, but he was still breathing. That meant they'd temporarily lost a teammate and would have to face Yue on their own. Luckily, Yue released her clones and stood alone, even going so far as to tell Tayuya to go stand next to the bath master.

"Shino-kun, can we beat her?" Hinata quietly asked.

"No use whispering, she can probably hear us just fine," the bug user said, noting that Yue's cat ears were both perked up.

"Wasn't that enough to deter you four? I guess I need to go further..." Yue said in a dangerous tone, electricity starting to spark about her form as she assumed an offensive form that bordered on cat-like, complete with her hands clenched as claws. She was down on all fours now, ready to use her absolute full speed.

Akamaru barked, signaling to Hinata to get on his back. She did so, knowing that her speed wasn't great enough to catch Yue off guard, but she might be able to with the dog's help. "Let's go..." she muttered to herself and the dog.

Yue stared the two down with her sharingan. She had a plan to stop the dog completely and then get at Hinata. She just had to wait until the very last moment or the dog would veer out of the way and Hinata would knock her down with a jūken strike. Unsealing her tenketsu would tire her out and it didn't counteract the pain of the initial sealing either. Out of all the rookies from their graduating year, Hinata was the only one, other than Naruto, who presented a viable individual threat to Yue. Of course, Naruto currently needed his clones to be able to fight on par with her, but he was still a threat.

Yue dodged the first strike, hopping aside and turning to face them while the dog turned to charge her again. This time, Hinata stood and jumped off the dog, who struck at Yue with his own tsūga. "Fell into the trap," Yue muttered as she flipped over Aka Kubikirihōchō and braced it, letting the dog smash into it with his head to knock himself out.

_'One down,'_ Yue thought as she walked away from the downed dog, looking for Hinata.

The dark haired heiress appeared right before the exiled Ruuko, her byakugan active.

"Kami hates me..." Yue muttered as she got ready to deflect a double palm strike.

"**Shōtei!"** Hinata snapped as stepped forward into Yue's guard and drove a palm strike into the area below Yue's sternum. The hanyō cried out as she was pushed back and forced to stagger around, trying to keep on her feet. She failed and fell to her knees, coughing up some blood.

"I-I didn't hit her that hard!" Hinata cried out, scared that she had done some serious damage.

Yue pulled her jacket open, then she undid the bandages to show a pair of healing slashes on her side over her hip, large and deep looking ones too, as well as a scar that was mostly covered by her shirt, a scar that Hinata had hit dead on. "Right where his royal Uchiha-ness got me nearly three years ago. Damn that hurts!" she growled, trying to use what little talent she had with Shōsen jutsu to lessen the pain. She, once more, wished she had more talent with medical ninjutsu. Hell, it'd be useful if Mana was around. Why did this place have to run low on salts today of all days?

"Hinata! It seems that her scar is sensitive to chakra infusion! I suggest you take her down by sealing her tenketsu after hitting that scar again!" Shino shouted. Yue's defenses went to absolute zero after that last strike. A toddler could have waddled up and tapped his rattle on the ex-jōnin's head and she wouldn't have been able to stop it.

Hinata didn't like to take advantage of a wound like that, but she charged forward anyway. _'Naruto-kun, __I'll bring Yue-san back __for you and your team__.__'_ she thought as she drew up on the girl, ready to surprise her again by getting through her defenses.

Yue vanished, a light crackle sounding behind Hinata. She turned in time to see Yue in a stance she partially recognized. "This should be enough to copy it!" Yue declared, thrusting her left hand out with her middle and ring out, her thumb holding down her index and pinky fingers to her palm.

The attack hit Hinata's shoulder and pure, crackling power rippled out the back. Hinata didn't even grunt in pain, she just let herself fall back while stunned by the startling realization that Yue had not only dissected and claimed to have copied Kiba's justu, but she had copied a jūken strike as well.

Hinata had seen her father use the move before, which was an advanced version of the move Neji had used to damage her heart during the exams. The move the talented branch member had used was designed to damage the organ, the one Yue had copied was meant to instantly kill the person hit with it by reducing the heart to wrecked muscle and ruin the chakra network around it. Yue had, since her lightning wouldn't be able to stop the heart outright and she lacked the eyes to see tenketsu, aimed at a sensitive nerve bundle that lay right over the shoulder joint which, coupled with her powerful raiton, produced temporarily crippling pain through about a quarter of Hinata's body.

"Well, I'm done here, time for them to go to bath 10," Yue said, a grin on her face.

"**TSUGA!"** Kiba roared, slamming into the girl and driving her into a rock. Completely caught off guard, Yue could only scream as the jutsu repeatedly struck the scar on her chest, as well as partially pulling open the smallest of the slash wounds on her side.

Kiba let up, panting from his effort as well as the injuries Yue had dealt to him. "No, you are the one who needs medical attention, and you'll get it as soon as I drag you through the gates to Konoha!" he declared, pointing at the girl who had dropped into a seated position, holding her scar and wound, crying from the agony of them. Her entire side was red and a small puddle was beginning to form on her right side.

Shino had gotten up to assist his teammate, but faltered when a sweet song reached his ears, one played by Kazeneko Tayuya. He quickly noticed that Hinata fell asleep, as did Kiba. The Aburame managed to keep himself away thanks to his insects, but even he knew he couldn't fight Tayuya on his own.

"Take your team to the bath and rest there. Me, Nee-san and Mana have something we must do now," Tayuya said, though Shino had to read her lips to understand that due to his insects blocking his ears. He allowed the woman to pick up her teammate and vanish in a swirl of wind. He noticed Yue's sword seemed to shimmer, vanishing like it was a mirage.

_'We must report this to the Hokage as soon as possible!'_ Shino thought to himself as he and the bath master took the injured members of Team Kurenai to the healing spring.

_[A day later, Hokage's office]_

_'Is it too much to ask for a nice, quiet time in this office? Can't I serve as Hokage during peaceful times?'_ Tsunade asked herself as Kiba kept going on and on. While the information about Yue having no borne reflexes was interesting, it was even worse when she learned that Yue copied a taijutsu move from a clan member and claimed to have stolen another. While Yue probably couldn't be properly master the moves, if Homura got wind of it, he'd bump Yue's rating as a missing-nin up to S-rank and that would end all chance of her returning and living in the village.

She waited for Kiba to stop his ranting for a breath. "Listen to me, all three of you. The fact that Yue copied those two techniques will never leave this room! Understand?" she ordered.

"What do you mean? The clans need to know about this!" Kiba said.

"Listen, Team Kakashi already ran into her once and they wish to bring her and Sasuke back. If it becomes public knowledge that she can use other clans' taijutsu, she will only come back in a body bag," Tsunade stated.

Kiba calmed down, realizing he had almost disrespected the wish of one of his best friends. "Damn, sorry, didn't even think about that. Alright, I'll keep my yap shut."

Hinata and Shino agreed with Tsunade's request and Team Kurenai left the room.

Tsunade reached into the desk and pulled out a picture of four people: a blond man, a redheaded woman, a man with black hair and a woman who looked like a taller, fuller figured Yue, the girl's mother. "Luna-san, Nozomu-san... Your daughter is a real pain in the ass, but I bet you two would be proud of her. Now if she'd only stop doing all this stupid stuff, being like your best friends' son, it'd be easier to bring her home," the Hokage said, propping the picture up on the desk for a few minutes, looking at the signatures and hand written caption.

'Namikaze Minato. Uzumaki Kushina. Ruuko Nozomu. Kazeneko Luna.'

'Friends forever, Dattebane!'

Tsunade smirked a bit, remembering Naruto's excited outbursts. "Looks like he inherited it from you in spite of your wishes, Kushina."

_[A nearby forest]_

Yue had suffered through the wound being closed again and had told the one who did it that they suffered half as much as she hoped they would. They told her to stop being an idiot and calm down until she healed. Mana had been applying Shōsen jutsu to ease Yue's pain as well as help the wounds heal.

It had been six hours since then and Yue was mad, mainly because her group was being tailed.

"Come out of hiding," Yue commanded, turning to face the followers.

Ichi, Nii and Habiki stepped out of the shadows. "Your hearing is so good, and you look as beautiful as the pictures of your mother! I want to make you my pet!" Ichi squealed, hugging herself.

The three missing-nin kunoichi sweat dropped, two of them wondering how the woman didn't just pop out of her clothes with those rigorous motions and decency defying cleavage. The last one wanted to zip the outfit shut, no matter how much it hurt the hussy that was tempting HER Yue!

"What do you three want?" Mana asked, holding up a chakra scalpel coated hand.

"I want that pretty kitty as my pet now!" Ichi exclaimed.

"Yue's head, for the reward," Nii said.

Habiki went down onto his hands and knees, his forehead almost touching the ground. "I want to be Yue-sama's student!"

Everyone stared at him since he'd just said the last thing you'd expect a man to say to the one who single handedly destroyed the school of sword fighting he'd been attending.

"Why?" Yue asked.

"My master, he once told me that the great sword masters looked more like dancers than killers while fighting, that their grace and power mix together to resemble the most beautiful dance one could encounter in a lord's home. When I saw you, Yue-sama, cutting down some of the people in my school's dojo, it was the first time I'd ever seen a sword fighter's movements as beautiful," Habiki explained.

Mana, in a jealous rage, activated a second chakra scalpel and took a shaky step forward. "H-he must be meaning to catch Yue-sama off guard! I must eliminate him here and now!" she declared.

"Stand back, you won't be killing them," Yue ordered.

Mana relented, though she wasn't happy about it. "Hai, Yue-sama."

"You, boy, why would you seek me out with the intention of becoming a student? Wouldn't it be more sensible for you to try and kill me to avenge your master?" Yue asked.

The teen, who had moved so that he was just on his knees, hung his head. "At first, when I learned the school master had been killed during your assault, I was going to kill you to restore his honor, but I realized that it was a fair and noble crossing of blades, that Master Ryuusuke fell with his dignity and honor intact. That is why I wa-"

"I stabbed him in the back, piercing his heart in the process. He didn't even turn to face me," Yue suddenly said.

Habiki was silent, stunned at what he'd heard. When he'd seen the scene, it looked like they had fought each other honorably.

"Whoa~ He came here thinking you were a noble swordswoman? Oh my, he doesn't realize that you, Red Blade Yue, are known for murdering over two hundred people at least," Ichi said.

"Why?" Habiki asked, having ignored Ichi.

Yue looked up at the sky, noticing that she had a bit of time before the mission started. "While it was only once, he did participate in the rape of a woman. She didn't hate him for it because he was forced into it by his peers, but he hated himself for it and, therefor, drew the grasp of Hell to his soul. The voice I heard was his own, begging to be sent to Hell. I answered the call and... he didn't turn to defend in spite of knowing I was behind him. He took that blow and died on his own terms."

Habiki decided that it was probably true, since the man had made it a point to treat women with the utmost respect and he made sure to visit a temple at least once a month to beg forgiveness for his one unnamed sin.

Nii started laughing. "Well, guess that means that I can kill you now!" he declared stepping forward.

"Dog, you stink of blood," Yue said, glaring at the kid with her sharingan.

"Nii?" Ichi asked, not understanding what was going on anymore. This kid didn't seem so normal anymore.

"Come on out, boys, we got the head of the cat princess to cleave off!" Nii shouted, a half dozen demon ninja stepped out of the shadows.

Yue huffed. "So, another gift from Jeio, huh?" She drew the short swords from her sides, both straight bladed with reversed edges. "Sorry about this, but I'm not going to cut you down with even a shred of honor," Yue said.

The demon ninja threw shuriken wrapped in black, dark blue or green auras, some of which Yue dodged by moving her head out of the way for the two seconds it took the throwing weapons to fly by. She reached the first demon ninja and drove both swords into his chest, the points peeking out his back, before she kicked him off her swords. With that one down, she blocked the strike of another with her blades, then jumped over the swipe of another, letting him gut his ally in her place. She came down, one blade spinning to a reverse grip as the other cut the shocked ninja demon's hands off at the wrists.

With two of their kind down, one badly wounded, the remaining demons threw a hail of shuriken at Yue, but she completely avoided them by jumping high up and came down with her blades aimed at two necks, the owners of which jumped back to avoid death. One of the others ran forward, his sword pointed at Yue's heart. Yue spun, crouched and flung her right handed blade into the demon's stomach, then ran forward and tore the blade out of him, leaving him to die from the massive puncturing. She sheathed her weapons after revolving them to flick the blood off.

"S-shit!" one of the three remaining demon ninja gasped. Yue had seemingly, without effort, cut them down. It didn't help that, at best, they were barely jōnin level fighters. Opponents like them, who had no real way of using ninjutsu or chakra to strengthen their weapons, were worthless against her.

Yue performed seven rapid hand seals. **"****Katon: Karyū Endan!"** she roared as a large fire dragon rushed at the ninja, roasting two of them alive.

"This is too much! I never thought she was this strong!" the last unharmed demon ninja shouted as he turned and started to run away. He got a few feet, then he was pinned against a tree when a number of kunai held together by a wire caught him.

"**Katon: Ryūka no ****j****utsu,"** Yue muttered as flames shot down the wires she held in her mouth, consuming the final demon ninja. "That was much easier than I expected, though they were just fodder-nin to begin with," Yue muttered to herself, even as blood trickled down her cheek and temple from a few shallow cuts she had received from a few shuriken she had let get too close to her. She flung a kunai, hitting the final ninja in the base of his skull, instantly killing him.

"Hehehehe, you really are a talented killer. I've never, in my life, seen a demon use yōki like you do," Nii praised.

"Yōki? I can't directly use yōki. Those attacks were all proper ninjutsu fueled by chakra or just chakra empowered," Yue stated.

"Liar! There is no way that a proud demon child would debase themselves by using a pitiful human's techniques!" Nii shouted, clearly offended.

Yue, in spite of grinning, looking insulted as she drew Aka Kubikirihōchō. "Proud demon child? I'm a fucking outcast, hated by humans and most demons are disgusted by my very existence. Besides, my yōki is sealed off still, unable to leave my body in usable quantities. That is the only reason I had to absorb outside energies, or what I used to call Malice, in order to use yōki based ninjutsu when I was younger. Now I can mix my yōki into my chakra, eliminating the need to breathe in another energy."

"You disgusting beast! To use human techniques with your proud blood! I was doing this as a duty before to my Queen and her ally, Nekomata Lord Kazeneko Jeio-sama, but now I will erase you for the pride of all demons!" Nii shouted, swinging his arms forward.

Yue swung her sword down and was surprised at it stopping dead, right before numerous small wounds opened on her arm. She seemed even more surprised when her arm was yanked on, more blood coming as something bit deeper into her arm.

"Got you, bitch," Nii said.

"The term you are looking for is QUEEN!" Yue shouted, biting down on something. She went through a number of seals and everyone was surprised when fire started rocketing from her mouth and traveled along invisible winds, headed straight for Nii.

Nii, jumped, leaving his baggy jacket behind as it was consumed. "The ninjutsu that lights strings aflame. To think it could set my weapon on fire as well, disgraceful," the child stated, though now that they could see him clearly, they realized that he was actually an adult that was very short and young looking. He also had blond dog ears on his head, a bushy gold tail and his hair was extremely long, easily triple the length of Yue's waist length hair.

"To call your own hair a weapon, you must have a kekkei genkai, half dog," Yue said.

"SHUT UP! I take after my wonderful mother, a noble dog demon! I'm nothing like that human trash that raped her!" Nii shouted, his hair growing longer and forming into a lance, aimed for Yue's heart.

Yue swung her blade down, cleaving the spear in two down the center, the two halves breaking into tendrils to attempt to skewer her from multiple angles, but she jumped back before they struck. "It's like fighting a Nara's shadow. This could be tricky," Yue admitted as she jumped back.

Nii changed his hair into a blade and attempted to cut Yue down, but she cut it in half, proving that the hair blade wasn't all the strong. That meant Nii's hair was now barely two lengths longer than Yue's. "I can kill you with a foot of hair!" he declared, making multiple lances with his hair.

Yue vanished in a crackle of lightning, reappearing behind the man as his hair was sliced down to a few inches in length. "Did you know that your hair power is actually a lost kekkei genkai from Kirigakure?" she asked.

"Lies! Lies! This is demonic power!" Nii shouted, tears in his eyes.

Yue sighed. "Wrong. The kekkei genkai you used allows you to double the length of your hair as well as control it to act like ninja wire, though the lengthening is only temporary. Your hair is also, with the application of yōki in your case, able to be as hard as steel and maintain a deadly point. Yōki based attacks could never do that, they are purely destructive, unless of course you contain the blood borne powers of lust demons."

"I'll kill you!" Nii screamed, a dagger in hand.

Yue swung her blade up to stop the small knife, shattering it with ease. "Use you head! In what world could a human, even if he were a high ranking ninja, rape a demon? Let me guess, you were raised by demons, right?"

Nii, now scared of the girl and her sword. "S-so what? They're better than my father or his human family ever would have been!"

"That human and dog demon you killed years ago as your proof of being a fine demon, those were your parents," Yue said, not even looking at the man.

"Wh..what?" he asked, his eyes widening.

"You saw them, didn't you? A loving couple who didn't care when others said they were an insult to nature, parents who had lost a child they cared deeply for. You were taken from them because your blood was thick enough for the demons to stomach your presence, and your father's kekkei genkai was desirable as well," Yue explained.

"How do you know all this?" Nii asked.

Yue looked down, her cat ears flattening on her skull. "I died before and went to Hell. Something changed in me and now, when I stand before people and focus, I can hear the souls of those who were wronged by the people before me, whispering for me to send them to the pits. Your parents, in spite of you murdering them, are asking me to spare your life. They cry out for those who twisted you into what you are today, and I fully intend to send them all to Hell."

Nii thought about this for a few moments, wondering if it was true. "Tell me why you don't hate humans. You are a murderer of them, so why don't you kill them all?"

"I'm like you, a hanyō born from a ninja father and a demon mother. Also like you, I inherited powers from my father and mother. While both races hate me, not every human hates me and I was lucky enough to be raised by humans who, unlike the demons who raised you, didn't see me as a convenient weapon to use," Yue said, laying her sword onto her back again.

"But you are what the humans call a 'missing-nin,' a traitor. Why would you turn your back on them when they treated you with respect and love?" Nii asked.

Yue looked away. "I have a goal I need to accomplish, one that the ninja wouldn't allow if they ever found out about it, one that would get those who don't deserve it in trouble. With me on this side, only I suffer, as is normal for us half breeds." She turned to her partners and nodded to them, right before all three left in their respective elemental shunshin. Nii also got up and left, hoping to get answers.

"Well, I'm definitely dropping my chase, Nee-san can get Kazeneko-chan herself if she truly wants her," Ichi said, turning away.

Habiki looked at her. "Your sister? Why would your sister want Yue-sama?"

Ichi looked back at him, a coy grin on her face. "Because my sister is a collector, you see. My name is Iris, her name is Zoe. The two of us are some of the last Uzumaki left alive in this world."

The young swordsman decided that, in order to meet Yue again, he'd need to go to a certain place. He went south, towards Konoha.

_[Ruined forest, a day later]_

"Gah...ah...ah...guh..." the teen grunted as Yue held him against a mostly destroyed tree, pale chakra surrounding the hand around his throat, her other hand on his chest. She was draining him of his chakra, taking all of it away.

Mana and Tayuya didn't react when _he_ arrived, mostly because they didn't notice him until he spoke. "How goes the mission?" the man asked.

The teen Yue held up stopped giving up chakra, so she canceled the drain and dropped him. "He's been drained and I got all of the chakra," she explained.

"...Did it increase your powers?" the man asked after thinking for a moment.

Yue shook her head. "I can't use the chakra, I keep telling you that."

The man nodded slightly, then walked over to Yue with a coat in hand. "Here is a replacement, since I figured that one would be destroyed after this mission."

Yue's jacket was destroyed, burned away in most places, completely torn in others. She tore it off, threw it aside into a still burning patch of Amaterasu, and took the completely identical jacket. She had used up all her kunai anyway, bombing the teen into submission. The new jacket was already loaded with the hidden throwing blades in addition to the usual 'refinement.' She'd get Mana to heal her burns and cuts later, when they had a chance to rest.

The man leaned closer to Yue. "Did absorbing that chakra really do nothing for you?" he very softly whispered in her cat ear.

Yue's sensitive ear flicked from the warm breath, but she still caught it. 'You can't absorb any chakra without something happening,' she mouthed as she briefly used the process of putting the jacket on to obscure all vision of her face, aside from the man before her.

The man stepped back. "I have another mission for you, as well as a personal request."

Yue sighed, the four of them leaving the area so that nobody could eavesdrop of them. "Make it quick, I have to make sure I'm ready for something that's coming up soon."

"A secret mission?" the mans asked as they came to a stop.

Yue shook her head. "No, personal business."

_[Demon Dog Castle]_

Four soldiers left with the remains of a certain golden haired hanyō assassin, though one was carrying his head.

"I told you to not leave it in the hands of a filthy half breed," Jeio said, glaring at the queen of the dog demons as he scrubbed his sword clean of blood.

Miria, queen of the dog demons, glared at her feline guest. "And lose precious soldiers and assassins like you? I think not. If I had to sacrifice anyone, it would be the mixed bloods, since their numbers are on the rise and their abilities are on par with a full demon's." She actually didn't want anyone to die, not even the young man that Jeio had beheaded when he had started questioning the queen about his family lying to him. Everyone knew Jeio looked down on anything not of pure demon blood, so she had to choose her words carefully around him.

Jeio remained silent, angry that this woman saw some worth in the lesser beings that dirtied their streets and the world that rightfully belonged to the most superior race in existence: the demons. Humans and the tainted children they saddled demons with should all have been purged ages ago, like any other plague riddled beings.

"What are you doing now, Jeio?" Miria asked, her ears perked up in interest.

"She's being monitored," he admitted.

Miria frowned. "Only monitoring? Could it be that you've finally developed a fear of her?"

"No, that's not it," Jeio said, "she's been moving oddly for a while now, and she keeps meeting up with unusual individuals."

Miria sighed. "Since when have you been afraid of a human? Other than your unaccepted human son-in-law or his blond friend's wife?"

"I never was afraid of them!" Jeio snapped, his claws extending. He calmed himself down, then pointed to something at Miria's side. "one of them made that."

Miria saw what was being pointed at and gave the man a stern look. "You even think of hurting him and I'll pull your intestines out and use them as a noose to hang you with," she warned. Then she leaned back, sighing. "If you fail anymore than you have so far, I will stop dealing with you and speak with Yue."

That surprised Jeio. "Wh-what? Why would you work with my daughter's half human child?"

"Because she's much easier to deal with and the people prefer her, the Barefoot Princess, over you any day, both with her own people and mine," Miria explained.

"That little witch doesn't have any people! She's been tricking the mindless masses, using their lingering feelings for my dearest Luna and her looking like her to sway them to her side! When she's gone, the people will see the errors of their ways! They'll see I was right!" Jeio insisted.

Miria silently stared at the petty being before her and, without thinking, spoke her mind. "That pathetic, all consuming lust for power...it's disgustingly human, as you would say."

"W...h...a...t?" Jeio slowly asked, stunned that such a thing would be said to him. How could he, a proud and noble demon lord, have anything in common with a blundering human? To even think of such a thing was utter lunacy.

"Go now, Jeio. I only want to see you again if you did manage to kill her, and then I will grudgingly agree to work with you," Miria said, looking away from the fallen demon before her. She figured that if he did secure his position, he'd be assassinated in less than a year. She prayed that Yue removed the man's head and sat on the vacant throne instead.

Jeio left in a huff, angry that he'd been ridiculed. He would be back, with Yue's head in hand or, if things worked out right, he wouldn't need to kill his granddaughter. If she only agreed to his terms, she could live without fear of being assassinated.

Miria sighed again, picking the object a certain human made. "Uhuhuhu, Noemi-chan is so naughty in this one, Jiraiya-sama~!" she cooed with a deep blush.

**Jutsu Index-**

**Enton: ****Kutsū** [Blaze Release: Agony] – A blaze release that coats the target(s) in weaker flames of Amaterasu. Rather than outright killing the person, they are slowly, tortuously eaten alive by the flames over a period of seven days. Most don't make it to the seventh day, those who do live in constant agony til their body gives up, resulting in both their death and this devious jutsu's name.

**Nise****S****ekai** [False World] - A sharingan genjutsu that creates an illusionary world, or to be more accurate, a 'sheet of false reality' to trick an opponent. By showing most of what is true reality, the illusion is enforced more heavily and what is hidden is ignored more easily. Each 'world' needs a pair of sharingan to create, so clones are used for multiple targets.

**A/N~**

I've been reading 'From Ramen with Love' and I did a bit of fact checking and realized something: Temari is slightly older than Yue, both being 18-20 in Part II. Temari was born August 23rd and Yue was born December 13th, making Temari a little over four months older than Yue. That came as a shock to me since Yue was originally designed to be the oldest of Naruto's group, which includes Gaara and his siblings. I do believe that Yue has more life experience though, considering what she's gone through.

Next chapter, or the one after it, will have a list of things a hanyo can and cannot do in Naruto, along with how the law treats them.

**-Preview-**

**Madness-**

Ino panted, wildly looking at the corroded, rotting walls of the hospital she found herself in. "This isn't right. It shouldn't be dangerous in here!"

Yue walked into view at the end of the corridor, turning to look at Ino. The mind walker was terrified, seeing the hanyō's body was rotting away, but still moved and obviously wanted to do nothing more than kill her. The undead half demon released a primal roar as she rushed at Ino, who ran to a door marked 'Danger! Do Not Enter!' She slammed the door shut and locked it, leaving Yue to smash her decaying claws against the door, her maddened sharingan flaring.

"Oh? A mind raper has appeared..." a voice came from a speaker with no connection to anything.

"Mind raper?!" Ino bellowed, offended.

"What else would I call you after you forcibly shoved yourself into another being's mind?" the voice asked. It was a sad, but true fact.

"Are you Yue? Are you a part of her? What was that-that zombie thing that attacked me?" Ino asked.

A chuckle emanated from the speaker. "No. I am related to the hanyō, but we are not one in the same. That rotting filth was a 'Guilty,' a being born from Yue's self hating heart that hunts and consumes anything that invades her mind. Think of it as a white blood cell for her mind, if you will."

Ino was confused. Did Yue have some kind of monster locked in her body like Naruto? She was pretty sure that all the bijū had been in humans, so what was left to be sealed into a hanyō? Could a hanyō be made into a jinchūriki? ould it be some kind of jutsu like her family's mind jutsu?

A warm, moist, blood scented wind hit Ino's nose, causing her to gag slightly. "Follow the scent of the slaughter. Learn of this child, feel her agony and, eventually, meet me, the one who made her into what she is," the voice stated from all the speakers at once as Ino heard numerous heavy locks undo themselves, giving her a path to follow.

With no way back, Ino continued forward, trying her best to ignore the smell of death that assailed her nose.

The speakers crackled again. "Watch out, the Guilty are after you now. If they catch you, you will die here and in the real world. You cannot escape unless **I** let you leave."

**Omake-**

**All Kunoichi meetings start with insults**

It was a special meeting between all the strongest or most well known kunoichi in the world. Rank, status and your place in a bingo book didn't matter here. Missing-nin, Kage, ANBU, chūnin and genin were all present.

"Are we all in attendance?" Tsunade asked, being the head of these meetings. Everyone nodded, but Yue held her hand up. "Alright, who isn't here, Yue?"

"Deidara!" was Yue's answer.

In a nearby forest, Deidara started bombing Tobi in a sudden fit of rage.

**Barefoot...**

"Yue, I have a question for you," Sakura said.

Yue turned to Sakura, seeing that there were other girls and women around her, Ino among them. "Y-Yes?" she asked, her face reddening slightly at the sight of the blonde.

"Well, we were wondering what happened to your sandals," Tenten pointed out.

Yue looked at her bare feet, bandages wrapped so the arches were covered along with her shins. "I haven't worn sandals in close to two years now."

"Why?" the females asked.

"I know of people, children, who are too poor to afford to wear anything on their feet aside from bandages like these ones," she said, pointing to said article of clothing, "so I spend my money getting them shoes and I continue on without sandals or shoes, letting them know that I'm willing to experience their pain, whether current or past."

"But doesn't it hurt when you step on rocks or broken glass?" Moegi asked.

Yue shook her head. "Chakra, when used properly, can grind things to dust."

**-New section-**

It has recent come to my attention that the Uchiha clan in fact has two kekkei genkai. There is the sharingan, which we all know of, and then there is the Hiku shiri, the ass pull. Seriously, any Uchiha with the first name 'Sasuke' or 'Obito' has displayed this unique jutsu, most notably Sasuke. In fact, Sasuke is famous for them. Well not in my fic. What follows is a list of annoying, completely unexplainable ass pulls that will be removed in some way. It isn't complete, since I've yet to read the whole manga, but I will fix these points of Uchiha favoritism. Of course, there are other points that I'm altering as well, because they make little to no sense at all.

1: Sasuke VS Deidara (aka The Great Snake Escape)

Description: Sasuke, in spite of being completely out of chakra, summons Manda, uses Tsukuyomi on him and then reverse summons the snake after crawling into its nostril, all before an explosion from a few feet away could vaporize him. As anyone would know from chapters/episodes before this event, all of those take lots of chakra, which Sasuke DIDN'T HAVE!

Fix: Someone else will save Sasuke's ass, sort of like when he faces A and Killer B.

2: Sasuke's hawk summons

Description: Sasuke summons hawks during his fight against Danzō and never does it again. Isn't there a rule about one summon type per summoner? And doesn't it take time to be approved by the summon creatures? He didn't have time for all of that. Even Obito was mystified.

Fix: Aoba is Sasuke's personal snake summon, not some random bird. Hawk summons are out, since they were only put in so 'Taka' made some form of sense. (unless you likened the back of Sasuke's head to a bird's ass)

3: Orochimaru's curse seals and his revival

Description: By now, we all know that Orochimaru, when he made his curse seals years before the story started up, prepared for his death by somehow binding part of his consciousness to every curse seal he made in preparation for a jutsu that **didn't even exist** at that point. He also prepared for it because he knew someone would take his flesh into their body, allowing the man to revive himself. When did Orochimaru go to Aizen for villain lessons in plotting every detail years in advance?

Fix: Orochimaru's consciousness is bound to the one whose body he is inside, nobody else has it in their curse seals. He will return during the war, just wait to see how.

4: Shinigami mask, Uzumaki shrine and Zetsu clones

Description: There is an Uzumaki shrine outside of Konoha, with a mask that can be used to lay open the shinigami's stomach and release the souls within. Sasuke also happened to have enough Zetsu clones in him for the Edo Tensei and to give Orochimaru a new body made from Hashirama's cells, thereby strengthening the Edo Tensei.

Alright, first the shrine. How in the blue fuck did the village not link the shrine to Naruto? Are the people of Konoha seriously that retarded? The Yondaime Hokage is their fucking hero and Naruto is practically a spitting image of him, but NOBODY who didn't know of Minato and Kushina being together had even an inkling of this? Konoha's combined IQ would probably be extremely low if it weren't for the named characters, and I have a sneaking suspicion that only Shikamaru might have connected the dots to learn of Naruto's parents. (the slacker probably knows he's in a manga too) You would also think that, knowing of this mask, Orochimaru would have gone and used it soon after he got his new body at the end of Part I so he could use his arms again.

Onto the Zetsu clones... Yeah, that's pure ass pull right there. I don't even need to say anything at all about it.

Fix: The shrine is in the ruins of Uzushiogakure, not near Konoha, and nobody knows of it. There will be sacrificed Zetsu clones, but they will be captured off the battlefield by Orochimaru and Sasuke. As to how the Kage are revived by the snake, that will be explained later.

5: Sakura's Yin Seal

Description: Sakura has, if you've been reading the scans, been concentrating chakra to her forehead to create the same mark as Tsunade, which gives her a drastic increase in chakra levels, control and abilities. This is because the focusing of chakra makes it so that she is limited in what she can do, just like Tsunade is now. I know she has good control and all, but... yeah.

Fix: Sometimes on her off-time, Sakura meditates to show that she is actually focusing chakra for something. This will be shown, but sparingly.

6: Zetsu's chakra draining skill and Sasuke's reserves

Description: Sasuke, on the verge of death, gets saved when Zetsu shows up and transfers the chakra of everyone in the room to Sasuke during the Five Kage Summit. Now last time I checked, Sasuke had about as much chakra as Kakashi had in Part I, maybe a bit more, meaning all that chakra (from a few Kage level ninja) would overload him and kill him, right?

Fix: Sasuke gets saved by someone else who doesn't bend the laws of time and chakra reserve limitations

7: Bromance moment (gag) removes age old hatred

Description: In a moment that would make Lee and Guy throw up, Itachi says a few words to Sasuke and he's cured of ALL the combined hatred of the Uchiha clan, making him an emotionally unstable 'good guy' who still wants to kill Naruto and rule as the new Hokage. Of course, it took the revived Hokage to cement the deal, so to speak.

See, we didn't know it until afterward, but the Uchiha's Curse of Hatred is just like Orochimaru and his curse seal: a cure was made when the means of fixing it didn't even exist. Yes people, by killing the person that made the Uchiha a total and complete asshole, then having him/her revived so he could chat with you for a few moments, you'd be cured of your **all consuming rage** at every living being that didn't have a blood relation to you. (and didn't slaughter your entire extended family)

Now this wouldn't work for two reasons. One, most of Konoha encouraged Sasuke's pursuit of his brother and basically told him that being a moody little shit with a superiority/inferiority complex was perfectly okay, because he was an Uchiha. That means that all of Konoha would need to be killed and then Edo Tensei'd for this method to work, Sakura and Kakashi included. Second, Sasuke doesn't seem cured at all, since he's still, as seen in a recent chapter, out to kill Naruto.

Fix: I made a RISKY way of removing the hatred from somebody. It will be shown during the war.

8: Madara's an idiotic genius

Description: Madara is a genius, but he's too stupid to notice his favorite tool is not using the jutsu he's supposed to be using. It's also really easy to tell he isn't, since the hand seals are so different. Wasn't Madara supposed to be some all seeing ninjutsu prodigy? How did he miss that?

Fix: Madara has more toys because Tobi is a bad boy!

9: Sasuke, the emo flash

Description: Sasuke's eyes are healed and, after less than half a day, manages to run into all his old teammates after he revives Orochimaru. Before the next dawn, they are in Konoha and revive the previous Hokage. And long before the sun rises, they make it back to the battlefield and join the war. Um, didn't Sasuke just traverse massive distances in less than a day? Seriously, looking at the map, Sasuke covered more than eight days of travel, at shinobi speed too, in less than eighteen hours and he didn't even break a sweat. Even the Raikage couldn't do that and he's the fastest living shinobi.

Fix: Since the shrine isn't available, and Obito's hideout isn't too far from the battlefield, Sasuke will meet up with his team where Orochimaru is and the Edo Tensei will be done there, less than a few hours from the battlefield.

10: Awakening your dōjutsu

Description: Everyone knows that the Sharingan is awoken by stressful situation where you run the risk of losing a person you care for, but what of the other dōjutsu in the world? We already know that, until Sasuke came around, you had to kill your best friend to get the mangekyō. Even then, Sasuke awakened his mangekyō since he wasn't remotely close to his brother, through the altered story of Itachi, as told by Obito, probably bridged the gap. The thing is that the Rinnegan and Byakugan have no information on how they are awakened. In fact, Kishimoto went so far as to say that brakugan are awakened automatically.

Fix: I've decided on how the three great dōjutsu are awakened, but you'll have to wait until I get to the later stages of the war to find out.

11: Senju Tobirama, the man who seems to have created all jutsu

Description: Hiraishin and shadow clones are two of the jutsu the man is responsible for making and I think that more than half of the Scroll of Sealing is filled with his creations. It's a bit much for a person who specialized in water jutsu to be responsible for the creation of so many jutsu.

Fix: Shadow clone was made by someone else a long time ago. I'll let Tobirama have Hiraishin.

12: Madara is too boss for sharingan

Description: If anyone has been reading Naruto, you know that Madara used Susanoo with a pair of empty eye sockets recently. Quite simply, due to what Kishimoto has written in his own story, one needs two mangekyo, or a pair of rinnegan, to use the mighty Susanoo.

Fix: No mangekyō/rinnegan = no Susanoo. One mangekyō/rinnegan = no Susanoo. Two mangekyō/rinnegan = Susanoo. Comprendes, Madara?

**Responses-**

**Yuri-Hime-Chan:** Yue's grandfather is one of her antagonists. He's meant to be the primary source of her issues during Part II, other than her own choices. Basically, he's sort of like the Danzō of the Nekomata, a purist and so stuck in his ways he refuses to let the world move forward. You'll see how far this jerk is willing to go later on.

**Sky Zephyrus:** Things are meant to be complicated in this fic. And Yue could only do that because she knew what everyone was capable of. Sasuke never made it a secret what his jutsu were, neither did Naruto, and Sakura would obviously take Tsunade's style for herself and we all know Yue went up against the woman once and watched the three Sannin fight. Yue was prepared for them, meaning she had the advantage because her abilities, and even her presence, were unknown and unexpected factors to them.

As for canonverse, yeah, it's taken a deep dive into retardation. It was guilt that actually made her confess. Truth of the matter is that canon Sakura has no romantic feelings for Naruto and, despite him trying to kill her TWICE during the same day, Sakura is still in love with Sasuke. Sakura was just trying to lessen the burden on Naruto, the very same burden the promise she forced him to make when they were kids.

Sasuke, during less than a twelve hour period, traversed more than ten days of distance without breaking a sweat. He is also the only one who has harmed the Ten-tails without using its own technique against it. And more recently, the Ten-tails didn't even bother with Sasuke when it started eating chakra to fuel the Infinite Tsukuyomi, but nearly killed Naruto and a whole ton of fodder-nin and expendable samurai. Sadly, Shikamaru seems to be one of the victims of this attack, though he survived due to Naruto.

Plain and simple, it may look like the manga is called 'Naruto' but it is really read as 'Sasuke' again.

**Mfmxxx:** Once again, the reason for that will be revealed later, soon before Pain's attack to be exact.

**Thedarkpokemaster:** Didn't quite understand your first bit the further it went, but I think... yeah, you were wondering how Ino would help Yue return to the light. Well, nothing really. If anything, Ino's part of the reason Yue's a missing-nin now. (more on that later)

As for Sakura of 615, yeah, that's changing. No NaruHina moment there.

**Rose Contestshipping fan88:** A few WTF moments? I don't know if you're bothering to read Sasuke anymore or not, but the whole thing has gone from WTF to BS lately. Add into that the arrival of Minato led to yet another example of Naruto being an untalented ninja, mostly since his father mastered a power that took his son 16 years to gain in less than a few hours. The fact that the power is next to useless now makes it a wasted effort on his part. Naruto's been getting shown up practically every chapter lately. Add into it that Minato had tons of praise for Sasuke and very little for his own son just makes the Sasuke love more sickening than ever before. Heck, the Nidaime Hokage and Yin Kurama praised Naruto more than Minato has and both of them are jerks with no blood relation to Naruto. You'd think a father would be more happy to see his son and stop gawking the emo asshole Uchiha like a love sick fan girl.

**Rocketshipping Fan:** Well, the path to Ino's happy ending is very bumpy. Heck, I see some broken glass along the way. It isn't going to be some Twilight BS (or BL in that mistake's case) romance, it's going to be the rough kind, the kind that involves both people being hurt repeatedly along the way. Just like with Naruto pursuing Sakura, the relationship between Yue and Ino is less a growing attraction and more a test of emotional endurance. And since Mana is going to try her best to snag Yue for herself makes it harder for Ino to just claim Yue's heart.

I don't like easy romances, I like the bumpy ones, especially when most of the bumps involve comedy.

**Super Saiyan Sakura Haruno:** Naruto and Sasuke will be stronger than Sakura, but that's only because Sakura is extremely specialized, but something amazing will happen. Not only will Sakura overtake Yue, even being a key fighter against the hanyō later on, she will be key to Naruto being able to fight a powerful opponent during the war. As to how Sakura can overtake Yue, who is stronger than Naruto and Sasuke at the moment, will all be revealed later on.

And yes, Yue capturing Sakura in Tsukuyomi is very helpful to her later on.

**NaruSaku fand 100:** I'm having trouble reading your review again. You need to use punctuation or I'll just keep scratching my head while trying to decode your writing. Alright, let's decode...

While it is true that Sakura will react like a non-battered wife syndrome victim in this fic, she will turn to Naruto long before Sasuke tries to kill her after ordering her to kill Karin. Yue and Naruto are the reasons that Sakura will be hooking up with Naruto because the baka needs someone to keep him in line and alive.

As for NaruHina fans trying to rule the writers, I say forget them. WE are the writers, THEY are the readers. If they don't like it, stop reading the story. Hinata's the only woman for him? She was a **_STALKER!_** I don't care what you say, if you have a girl who follows the guy she likes around for a number of years while hiding, she's a damn stalker. She went from admiration and nervousness to being creepy back when they were twelve. I don't bash her, I just see her as being spineless and unworthy of Naruto if she's willing to stand back and let him get closer to Sakura in the manga and practically every female character in the anime only arcs and movies. She's the girl who, in canon, is the least deserving of Naruto because of that alone. She is like the childhood friend who waited too long and is now in the back of the pack while trying to get with the guy she loves.

Like I just said, I don't hate Hinata and I don't like bashing her at all, I just think she's too meek and passive for Naruto. Someone like Sakura is more right for him, since he needs someone who isn't afraid to cave his skull in for being a baka, just like Kushina said.

**Sakura fan 55:** Ino's persuasive like that. (read: scary wife)

I also find that most people just chose generic names on this site. At least its better than that dumbass I ran into on another fic, an anonymous reviewer with the awesomely creative name 'Basher.' His specialties? Being a troll and a basher because he didn't have a creative bone in his body.

**Silentlinkmit339:** I decided that Naruto does have the mind to be Hokage in this fic and he showed it in his reasoning. He is different from Danzō, who sees nothing more than threat meters. Still, that event was for him to see the darker side of being Hokage, to being a ninja at all: having to sacrifice one life to save another.

**Guest101& others:** Here you go.


	32. Clash of Weapon Mistresses

Chapter 32: Clash of Weapon mistresses

**Disclaimer: I own Kazeneko Yue, various OCs, a number of jutsu, a few kinjutsu, a kekkei tōta and a few arcs, but the Naruto manga/anime? Not a chance! BTW, this chapter is a bit weak...**

Yue growled, angered that she wasn't getting what she wanted. She had taken off her jacket and was currently cleaning her scent off so she couldn't be caught.

"Hey! It's that leaf bitch!" a Kiri-nin stated.

His partner chuckled as well. "We owe her for what happened earlier."

Yue stood up, still rubbing the herb treated water into a spot on her lower back. "If its about your teammate, he was a pathetic idiot and deserved what happened to him." 

"He's dead because of you, you bi-" the first started, but the other stopped him. "What is it?"

"Look at that," the second pointed to Yue's exposed back, to a small pattern visible on her left hip.

"That's... Oh this is rich! Konoha's Snake Slut actually taught someone?" the first asked, laughing.

Yue's eyes widened in shock, then hardened with rage. "What did you say?" She dropped her clothes back into place, covering up the scale patterned tattoo on her left hip, a mark that was on Anko, a mark her students copied in honor of her and how she trained them to be strong. They felt no shame in the tattoos, only covering them because Anko asked them to. Well, Yue could only expose a small part of her particular mark with normal clothes since it covered quite a bit of her hip. In a swimsuit, it'd be practically bared to the world, especially if it were the string variety, not that she'd ever wear one before.

"You heard me! Everyone knows that slut was trained by that bastard and is waiting for her master's signal. She's a traitor just waiting to happen!" the first Kiri-nin shouted.

Yue turned to them, glaring at them from under her black and silver bangs. "Take those words back..."

The second noticed something and tried to warn his teammate, but was shaken off. "What? Could I have hurt your feelings? Nobody trusts that tainted bitch, and nobody will ever trust you either, twisted halfbreed!"

Yue lifted her head, her eyes turning red as a black swirl whirled around her pupils. "I'm going to fucking kill you!"

The two panicked now. "Sh-Sharingan? B-but the shape... WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" the second one demanded, shaking like a leaf.

Yue growled. "What I am doesn't matter, what matters is that your teammate got off lucky. I should have killed him slowly, painfully and personally!"

"F-fuck! Let's bail!" the first one bellowed as they turned to run.

When Yue noticed them fleeing, a quick burst of black flame roared out of her right eye, sweeping over the two and set them ablaze, but the flames whirled around them like a tornado anyway, incinerating them as they died. Yue shot back, falling to the ground, whining and howling as she had her hands over her eyes, pressing the top of her head into the dirt the whole time. She made her way to the water, where she thrust her head into it to escape the burning pain, the water turning slightly red as it carried her bleeding tears away. It took five minutes, but the pain faded and she pulled her head out of the water, looking into it. She ignored the small pyre behind her and focused on her own image in the water.

"Wh-what is this?" the soon to be sixteen year old asked herself, looking at her now red irides, the pattern settling into a black...

Yue shot up, breathing hard.

"Yue-sama?" Mana asked, scared.

The nekomata princess took control of her breathing, bringing the sheet up to cover her body. Her hand ghosted down to the scale tattoo on her left hip, running her fingers along the patterns permanently inked onto her body.

"Nee-san? What's going on?" Tayuya asked, worried.

Yue sighed. "I had a dream of the first time I used my mangekyō, the first time I discovered the blaze release..."

The two remembered hearing of the tale, how she first used the power of her eyes during Konoha's chūnin exams. There was an interesting aspect of the flames produced by the mangekyō. One would think that having black flames coming out of your eyes would make tracking an enemy difficult, especially when you had to cover the unused eye to produce the flames, but Yue had told them that to the user of a blaze jutsu or Amaterasu, the flames were mostly transparent, easily able to be seen through.

"Yue-sama, all your jutsu seem to bring up bad memories..." Mana murmured.

The black cat girl looked down. "Everything I gained, that wasn't from the old man or Anko-sensei, all of it is mired in misfortune... I once said that I trailed misery in my wake, but I forgot the mention that I wasn't immune to it. 'Loss tempers strength' is what the old man told me once, but all I do is lose..."

Tayuya hugged the woman who adopted her, accepted her in spite of everything, the woman who showed her that there was a purpose to her life other than being Orochimaru's toy soldier. "Nee-sama... You might have lost a lot in your life, but you found so much as well. You found me, Mana, your friends back in Konoha. Most people would break from what you went through, what you chose to do, but you survived it all and came out stronger."

"Tayuya..." Yue muttered, leaning into the hug.

Mana sighed. "Yue-sama, maybe you should return to Konoha."

Yue's eyes shot wide open. "Wh-what?! I-I can't do that!"

"Because of us?" Mana asked.

"No, the two of you are my good friends, one of you is my little sister. No, the reason I won't go back is because they don't need me, not anymore," Yue sadly stated, "they have no need for an actual demon."

Tayuya knew what was coming and released her sister, right before Mana slapped Yue, sending the nude hanyō rolling off the bed from the force of the chakra enhanced slap.

"Yue-sama! Next time I hear you say that, I will make your next set of injuries heal real slow!" Mana snapped.

"Nee-san, it's times like these that I wonder how you ever survived basic training..." Tayuya said, then smiled, "you and that dandelion head from Konoha are exactly the same: always taking all the pain for yourselves, baka-tachi."

Yue blinked as she righted herself, rubbing at her sore neck and knee. "What?" she asked.

"You heard us," the two kunoichi stated.

"No, I di-bughafwa!" Yue tried to ask, but wound up gurgling when she was hit in the face by a water jutsu.

"Shower first, you're drenched in sweat," Mana ordered.

"Hey! I don't get what you- bufa.. Gha. Blagh!" the hanyō tried again, only to be drink more water.

To make sure she was silent on the matter, the two hit her with a weak wind/water combo, knocking Yue into the shower before they slammed the door shut and went about their morning business. A lot had to be done and they needed to get moving or else Yue would be disqualified.

Yue would hate to lose those weapons!

_[A week later, an arena on the edge of the Land of Iron]_

To be able to stand proud, challenging even, when so close to law upholding samurai with a capture order out for you would be considered foolish, but this was different. The banner that hung off the rain guarding roof of the arena said it all.

Twentieth annual tournament of the crossing blades!

Yes, it was a weapon tournament, held in the country that held the use of the sword as a sign of honor, even if the one with it was a murderer, missing-nin or even a common bandit. Yes, this tournament offered temporary asylum to those who would normally get snatched up for their bounty or to pay for their crimes, all because they could use a weapon with more skill than most cared to learn.

Yue noticed a familiar face down the line, one that she had, unfortunately, seen twist into terror not too long ago. _'Tenten, huh? Well, I think I'd be more surprised if she wasn't here,'_ the barefoot princess thought.

Tenten noticed the black haired girl look at her, and the weapon mistress of Konoha saw that the girl did her best to leave her eyes in the shadow of her bangs. "I wonder who that is..." she muttered to herself. Whoever it was, they seemed to know her.

"LAAAAADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" a short, dumpy man shouted, obviously using a voice enhancement jutsu, "this is the time you have all been waiting for! The three divisions of have all been cut down to these six talented individuals! Before we begin, how about we take a look at the prize our top three finalists will take home!"

With that call, a curtained off section of a balcony opened up. There were numerous stands with even more weapons laid out on them. High quality swords, weapons once wielded by legendary figures, even a few weapons that, shockingly enough, Tenten couldn't identify. Second prize consisted of very good weapons and third consisted of a large amount of ryo, but 1st prize was the goal of all in attendance, even the never before seen weapon types interested people.

Guy, Neji and Lee paled when they saw their teammate, Tenten, and the girl with long black hair, staring at the weapons as if they were hunky male super models in speedos. The girls were even DROOLING with their mouths hanging open, heavy blushes on their faces with sparkles in their eyes.

"I fear for the chastity of the weapons," Neji muttered, receiving nods from a number of men present.

"Now that we've seen what they're fighting for, how about we introduce the two finalists from each division?" the announcer asked, receiving cheers of agreement from the crowd.

Tenten was interested in this. The divisions had all fought separately so that any secret moves could be re-used for the final tournament. Other than the iaidō swordsman from her own division, she didn't know anyone else here.

The announcer stood before Tenten. "And here we have Konoha's own mistress of anything and everything that can be called a 'weapon,' a girl who has more weapons than most civilian armories, TENTEN!" The girl blushed, but waved a bit, especially to her cheering teammates, though she ignored Guy and Lee screaming about her showing off her hot blood. Neji gave her an approving nod.

He moved to a man garbed in pure black, aside from his katana's dull metal guard and the ruby red glass that made his long beaked mask's eyes. "Cloaked in mystery and having the skill to finish battles with a single, non-fatal blow, Crooooow!" Crow bowed slightly.

"And from division 2!" the man announced as he moved to the next set, standing before a deeply tanned woman with a pair of large, heavy blades that looked to be the bastard children of a battle ax and kitchen cleavers. She wore a light leather armor that allowed mobility, her long red hair was tied in a long braided ponytail, her coal black eyes staring straight forward. "A woman who hails from the wild Edge of our Nations, give a hand to Mea!" The woman snorted at many of the catcalls and whistles.

The announcer now stood before a man who was built like a mountain and had to be about six foot eight, at the least. His weapon of choice appeared to be a pair of gauntlets fastened to his hands, large ax blades fixed to one side of them so he could smash and slash at the same time. Judging by the metal mask he wore on the lower half of his face, the man wasn't much of a talker. "From a slave pit, he cleaved a bloody path to freedom! Now, he fights for the fun of it and refines his already deadly art. His name is Brehan!" Brehan unleashed a fearsome bellow that daunted every civilian man and even a few who weren't.

"Division three, the only division that ended with TWO multiple weapon users, and both women!" the announcer shouted as he walked over to the two, standing before a young girl. "Don't let her little pixie look trick you, I personally witnessed her smashing a man double her size into a wall! Say hello to Kia-chan!"

"H-hi!" the girl chirped, blushing hard as people cheered for her. She imitated Hinata and kept pressing her fingers together, blushing the whole time while looking at the ground.

And now the announcer stood before the wayward hanyō. "If this girl looks familiar to you, then you are right. Stirring the world up with a bloody red sword, fresh A-ranked traitor to Konohagakure and the rogue Ruuko, Kazeneko Yue!"

Team Guy all reacted the same way, though Guy and Lee were far more dramatic.

"Guy-sensei! Yue-san is alive!" Lee wailed.

Guy sniffled, but had heard the whole thing. "Yue-kun! So unyouthful!"

"She's...alive..." Tenten muttered to herself, shocked.

Neji remained silent, wondering what was going on with Yue's chakra system. Her chakra was almost black, though small sparks of red or white could be seen on occasion. It also seemed...a little wild at times, fluctuating for seemingly no reason. He had never seen a chakra system function like that.

Yue growled, drawing Aka Kubikirihōchō and placing the tip on the concrete below her feet. She pushed down, then dragged her sword sideways so it produced sparks and left a trail of dull red heated stone in its wake. That shut the murmuring crowd up.

"And now that we all know who we will be seeing in action, let's see who squares off against who!" the man shouted, pointing to a large screen. It flickered to life and showed pictures of each contestant. They all flipped over, shuffled, then were randomly dealt into one of six spots. When all the 'cards' were dealt, they flipped over to reveal the match ups.

Mea VS Kia

Yue VS Brehan

Tenten VS Crow

"And there we have it folks! Now, would everyone but Kia and Mea please vacate the grounds!" the announcer called. Once the arena floor was clear, he started up again, "please remember that you only lose if you die, are rendered unconscious or you are disarmed for thirty seconds! No ninjutsu, unless it is to unseal weapons! Are the fighters ready?"

"Y-yes," Kia stuttered.

Mea frowned. "As ready as I'll ever be to stomp a kid."

"Begin!" the announcer shouted.

Mea drew her blades and moved forward. "This should be easy!" the wild woman roared as she swung her weapons in a cross.

Kia was intelligent and unsealed a pair of giant, heavy clubs next to her. With that set up, Mea's swords were stopped dead. Kia unsealed a bo staff and jabbed forward through the gap in her clubs, Mea swaying out of the way and jumping back. The small girl went on the offensive, attempting to strike the much taller woman in the torso, but Mea proved that she wasn't just about power and her huge weapons, that she was actually quite nimble and skilled at evading swift attacks.

Kia grit her teeth and unsealed a pair of katana. "I won't lose here," she stated, swinging the blades back so she had no protection at all.

"Oho~ So an all offensive stance," Yue muttered.

Tenten turned to the girl, who was facing away from her. "What do you mean, Yue-san?" she asked.

"The girl has abandoned all forms of defense for pure speed and offense," Crow stated, "of course, if she misses roughly twice while in that stance, her arms and legs will be too tired to defend anymore."

Brehan, who had seen such stances in the slave pits, grunted, a worried look on his face. Despite his looks and brutality, he only believed that adults should be doing something as stupid as fighting with a risk of death involved. Since he'd been raised as a child soldier, he naturally hated seeing others following his path.

Kia rushed forward. When she was in range, she spun hard while falling forward, her blades became a hard blur, going for Mea's left side and the lung that lay in the blades' paths.

Clang!

The broken halves of the two katana crashed into the ground. Mea stood with her left arm crossed in front of her, the heavy blade resting over her side.

"That kind of stance doesn't work when facing an opponent with large, wide weapons like mine," Mea said, then drove a light kick into Kia's stomach, sending the girl rolling back. "If you're smart at all, andI don't want to maim a child, so lay there until the time is up."

Sure enough, Kia remained on the ground, unarmed and lightly injured. When the count was up and her loss was declared, the girl got up and walked over to the stand for the competitors. When she stood next to Yue, the hanyō placed a hand on her shoulder. "For your age, you are incredibly skilled. Come back when you're fifteen, and have trained as hard as you have, you will go all the way," she offered to the girl.

Kia nodded slightly, but was even more shocked when Mea herself got there and smiled. "Kid, if we were the same age, I'd be dead. If you like, I could give you a few pointers after this whole tourney is over. That last attack was good and all, but you were off target and you dropped too fast."

The small girl was surprised, since many of the people she had faced before were cold and callous. She hadn't encountered Yue before and assumed she was the same as the rest. She smiled a bit, deciding that she would continue her training so she'd be better next time she entered, in a few years of course.

"Will Brehan and Yue come to the grounds please!" the announcer called.

Yue, since it didn't violate the rules due to the match not having started yet, used a shunshin to appear on the field.

Tenten blinked. _'I've never seen such a shunshin before. I wonder what element it was...'_

Brehan lumbered to his position, staring down the much smaller girl. _'She may be small, but she didn't get labeled as an A-rank threat without reason. __She's also __the only__empower__ed hanyō who has chakra.__ I should be __very__ careful,'_ the huge man thought. Surprisingly, he was quite intelligent in spite of his looks and his inability to speak properly. He as communication impaired because the slave pits didn't exactly have the best language education classes.

Yue drew Aka Kubikirihōchō, then stabbed it into the ground. She summoned a large scroll in some kind of blurred jutsu. "For this battle, I'll use something from the past, something that shouldn't see the light of day again, not in my hands anyway," she said.

Everyone watched as Yue unfurled the scroll and released two swords: a long katana and a cleaver-like weapon. The heavier weapon, the giant cleaver, was in her left hand while the katana was in her right.

Brehan held his hands up like a pugilist, his gauntlets at the ready.

"Then let's begin!" the announcer shouted, getting well out of the way.

Nobody moved, the two fighters staring each other down. Some of the civilians started to complain, but the ninja and samurai silenced them, since most of the civilians were incapable of feeling something beyond their understanding.

At this very moment, both fighters were trying to find a way forward without the risk of losing a limb.

Tenten had felt this before, the tension of two ANBU facing each other down in a life or death battle. Even with her experience, she felt chills run down her spine.

After a half minute of standing still, Yue lifted her weapons, the cleaver resting on her shoulder and the katana held before her in a neutral downward position. After a few more seconds, they rushed forward and the arena was filled with the noise of steel meeting steel, at quite a high speed too.

Yue struck rapidly with the katana, delivering slashes to the gauntlets themselves, while her cleaver struck back against the axe parts to deflect them. Brehan was doing his best to knock her weapons down and away, but her incredible speed foiled all his attempts. Luckily, his speed was great enough that she couldn't hit him, not cleanly anyway.

"**Ruuko Sword Art: Crossed Sword Breaker!"** Yue shouted, her blades moving in a scissoring arc, catching one of Brehan's axes and shattering it. Before he could recover from his lowered offensive abilities, Yue swung her blades to be held out, the katana pointed forward, the cleaver held back as if she were going to chop her opponent down like a tree. **"Wild Ripper!"** she growled, spinning so her blades became a wild whirlwind of death.

"Greeeh!" Brehan grunted, putting his gauntlets up to catch the blows, stepping back to avoid his gauntlets being torn apart. When she stopped, he crashed his hands together, producing a loud clang, hurting Yue through her sensitive hearing. **"Judge's...****FIST****!"** the huge man bellowed, his fist flying forward.

BOOM! Brehan's fist made contact and a huge plume of concrete dust arced into the air.

Yue had been happy that she avoided it, since the man's hand hit with enough force that Tsunade would have sweat in response. She swore she heard a boom as his fist was moving forward. She could do without the steel covered hand resting in a crater eight inches from her groin though...

Lee got excited. "Guy-sensei! His power is amazing! I will train harder so that, in the future, I may have a similar strength!"

Guy nodded. "Yes, I believe I will join you as well!"

Thankfully, everyone ignored them and watched as Yue rolled back and backpeddled a bit to put distance between her and Brehan.

Yue took into consideration the fact that if his fist hit her, she'd be crippled for life, if she were extremely lucky. She didn't want to kill him, since it was frowned upon even if it were accepted. She went over a number of movements and techniques she knew, then sighed when she realized she'd need to rely on her actual training, rather than just her innate skills.

Brehan rushed at the girl again, this time he was planning on destroying her weapons. He, and everyone else, were surprised when she resealed her weapons.

"What's this? Is Yue giving up?" the announcer shouted, "well, unless she has another weapon to draw, she will lose in ten. Nine. Eight." 

Yue dropped onto all fours, rushing at her full speed until she pounced, gripping the handle and drawing Aka Kubikirihōchō from the ground, just before the man reached five. She rested the blade on her shoulder, holding it in her left hand. "I didn't want to have to do this," she muttered, mostly to herself.

Brehan marched up to her, figuring it was over. She had tossed her blades aside because she was afraid of damaging them, or at least that's what Brehan thought. He stood before her and raised his hands over head. **"Unfair...JUDGMENT!"**

"Story of my life..." Yue mumbled in response.

"**Tenbatsu."**

Everyone watched as Brehan was repeatedly slashed with what looked like a blood red ribbon of light, the experienced shinobi and samurai noticing that every last slash went over major muscles, leaving shallow but temporarily disabling cuts in their wake. His chest, his arms, his shoulders, his hips, nothing was spared when it came to Yue's blade cutting into it, leaving flicks of blood flying off the tip of the sword, leaving evidence of Brehan's injuries for all to see. Worst of all, Yue delivered all of these with one handed attacks, extremely rapid one handed attacks.

Yue ended it with a harsh two handed slash that lightly gashed his chest open enough to expose muscle and knocking him onto his back. "My win, my father's loss..." Yue muttered, placing the sword on her back. She turned and started to walk away, but was surprised when she found herself in a huge shadow. She turned, hand going to the hilt of her sword to defend herself.

Brehan, mask broken off, gauntlets removed, lightly bumped his knuckles against the girl's collar bone, smiling at her. "You...nice and strong lady," he said, then turned to the announcer, "I quit, she winner."

Yue was completely shocked. Nobody should have been able to take that blow and stand, even at its heavily weakened state. She didn't know if she miscalculated the slashes due to his immense size, or if the man was just that tough. Then again, she never performed this technique before without her sharingan, so that was probably it.

"Uh... Winner: Kazeneko Yue!" the announcer shouted. It came as no surprise that many of the people booed, wishing that the criminal had been defeated or killed. If Yue didn't win this tournament, she'd have to run afterward or else the ninja would catch her. Her asylum would only last if she were the winner, and as anyone who knew the weapon loving hanyō would say, she wasn't letting the grand prize of weapons go.

Yue returned to the stands, Brehan following some medics to receive medical attention. Tenten wanted to talk to Yue, find out how she was still alive and how she could fight so well. Sadly, that would have to wait.

"Will Tenten and Crow please come to the battleground?" the announcer called out. When the girl and man stood opposite each other, he smiled. "Onto the third round. Begin!"

Tenten unfurled her scroll, but her eyes widened when she noticed Crow before her, getting ready to perform an iaidō strike on her.

Shing! Click!

The strike was so fast that even Guy and Lee were stunned into silence. A number of the samurai were surprised that someone could deliver such a strike. Even more people were surprised that Tenten had avoided the attack, as well as draw a kusarigama to use against her foe. She repleased and spun the blade by its chain, knowing she had a greater reach with her weapon than her opponent, but he made up for it with his speed.

Crow rushed forward once more, delivering yet another fast slash. This time, Tenten noted that he had a bad habit of drawing the sword slightly before an attack, about half an inch, then he'd tilt the sword slightly in the direction of his attack, and finally carry out his attack. Because of all this, she could evade his attack as long as he wasn't showing this to throw her defense off.

During the next exchange, which would be the fifth one, Tenten swung the blade so it skirted close to the ground, then swung up and sliced through Crow's mask, though his sword still caught her forehead protector and left a deep cut straight up the metal near the far right edge of the plate.

Crow reacted by grabbing his mask to hold it together, all while he stumbled back and sheathed his sword. Without any warning at all, the man tossed a few smoke bombs down as a distraction. When the smoke cleared, everyone just stared blankly at the ground where he had been. Nobody had even seen him go for the exits, he just vanished!

"...Crow...surrendered. Tenten's win!" the announcer declared, the crowd cheering somewhat. It was well known that Crow wasn't the type to ever remove his mask, but to throw a match because it was about to fall off, lame.

Tenten sealed her weapon, touched her forehead protector and made a mental note to see if it could be repaired. She made her way back to stand and looked at the four remaining people, two of them being her fellow victors.

"And now we will have a short intermission, so you good people can relieve yourselves or get food, whatever you wish. Just be sure to be back in fifteen minutes!" the announcer shouted, then took his leave.

Tenten instantly turned and stared Yue down. "You got questions to answer."

"Sasuke killed me during that mission nearly three years ago, I was brought back to life six months later. I abandoned Konoha for various reasons, mostly because the village won't want to be associated with me soon enough," Yue quickly said.

Tenten blinked. "Uh, actually I was also going to ask about those swords you used during your match. They looked kind of familiar..."

Yue held her hand out, an old scroll similar in nature to Tenten's appeared and tilted over to rest against her hand. "This is the scroll that contains those weapons. If you manage to make it to the finals, I'll let you examine it," she challenged.

Tenten got a few seconds more to see the scroll before it was swallowed by distorted blurs, vanishing once more. "So you really are a Ruuko," she said, less question and more statement.

Yue nodded. "In blood only. Don't worry, I can still be bested in combat. There is no such thing as a style that transcends all. Even the Hyūga's vaunted jūken has faults."

"And you happen to know of these faults?" Tenten questioned.

"Somewhat, but it's just a theory. I'd have to actually face a Hyūga like Neji in order to see if I'm right and exploit the possible weakness of their jūken," Yue explained. She thought for a moment, then looked Tenten over. "Are you alright? I remember hitting you quite hard with my bijonferu last time we met."

"Last time we met? Bijo... Wait, you were the masked shinobi that defeated me back when the Kazekage was captured?!" Tenten shouted.

"Is this true, Yue-kun?" Guy asked as he and Lee appeared in leaf shunshin.

Yue turned to face the two, switching to her sharingan as she did so. "What do you think?" she asked.

"Sharingan, but different from Sasuke-san's!" Lee shouted.

Yue's eye brow and cat ears twitched at Lee's volume. "Ruuko sharingan are different from Uchiha sharingan, probably due to us possessing the blood of both the Uchiha and the Senju. Before you ask, no, we only seemed to receive the sharingan, or else the mokuton skipped twenty generations of Ruuko, me included."

Tenten knew that since Tsunade's grandfather, the Shodai Hokage, no member of the family had access to the famed mokuton, meaning it either went dormant or he was the last one to have it. He may have been the last true wood release user to ever live.

"All missing-nin have goals of some sort, what's yours, Yue-kun?" Guy asked.

Yue deactivated her sharingan. "That's for me to know, and you to find out later. Just to let you know, Konoha better cut all its ties to me, lessen the backlash of my actions. I'm afraid to say that each day is costing Kiri their hunters and some odd Konoha ANBU I've never seen before."

More would have been asked, but the announcer returned along with all the spectators. Guy and Lee returned to their seats, Neji waiting for them. He had kept his eyes on Yue the whole time, wondering how her chakra system could function properly with how the chakra flowed through it. The only way he could describe it was similar to how Naruto's chakra system had been when that strange red chakra had started to filter through it.

"And welcome back! The way the semi-finals work is slightly different from the norm. The one who wins the first round will pass to the final match, but the loser will fight against the other remaining combatant to have a second chance at winning the tournament," the announcer said.

Tenten stepped up. "Wait, if they lost once, doesn't that mean they just don't have what it takes?"

The announcer knew why she was asking, not seeing it as a sign of disrespect. "Circumstance can lead to defeat. What if, in a stroke of luck, the weaker one was the victor? This is a chance in case there was a fluke in the last match, or just plain old bad luck."

Tenten accepted that, mainly since she herself had been a victim of circumstance during the chūnin exams three years ago. Had she known Temari was so strong with her wind jutsu, she would have never thrown nearly every weapon she had at the girl and closed in on her sooner.

"And here are the setups, as decided by our experts," the announcer said, pointing to the board.

Round 1: Mea VS Tenten

Round 2: Loser of round 1 VS Yue

Round 3: Winner of round 1 VS winner of round 2

"Would Tenten-san and Mea-san please report to the battleground?" the announcer asked. Once the two women were on the field, he looked to the stands, "here we are, round 1 of the semi-finals! Let's all enjoy a good match. BEGIN!"

Tenten summoned her dividable bo staff, knowing she'd need its flexibility against those giant cleavers.

Mea grinned. "Don't get scared girlie, I promise I won't hit you with these little ones," she said as she hefted the heavy blades.

For some odd reason, Tenten didn't believe her. She went forward, knowing that being on the defensive against those blades would be stupid. Tenten opened up by using the staff as just that, a staff. Everyone, except Temari, saw the weapon as a simple staff, not as a giant nunchacku. When she saw Mea start to fall into a noticeable pattern of defending and striking at a staff user, Tenten purposely overextended a jab, making a risky opening in her side.

Mea grinned. "Gotcha!" she cheered, as she went to strike Tenten's side with her weapon's handle.

Tenten waited until the right moment, then snapped the staff into its nunchaku configuration and swung an end up into Mea's face.

Clonk!

Mea reeled, staggering from the sudden blow to her forehead. She didn't even get a chance to recover, since Tenten swung it overhead once and clipped her opponent in the temple, then swung it vertically, smacking it into the side of Mea's head.

"Uhhh..." the barbaric woman groaned as she staggered a bit. Her vision was shaking and her head was pounding. She vaguely noticed the announcer try to talk to her, but it didn't make any sense to her due to the throbbing in her skull. She kind of understood that she lost when a medic came over and escorted her to the stands, where they examined her to see if she was fit to continue.

"Winner, Tenten!" the man declared, just to end the match. He, Tenten and the crowd were hoping that Mea was alright. Since she was still on her feet after taking all three of those blows, she must be quite sturdy, or just plain stubborn.

After ten minutes, the medics stated that they'd need another five or ten minutes to be sure that Mea was alright.

Tenten looked to see if Yue had been watching, in case her nunchaku trick was exposed. What she saw made her livid.

"Hmm," Yue hummed as she turned the page of a very familiar green book. She nodded a few times, looked to the next page, then flipped to a fresh page with her sharingan taking it all in.

While fires of womanly wrath licked off of Tenten, Lee was bawling alongside his sensei. "Guy-sensei! Yue-kun is reading a most unyouthful book!"

"I know, Lee-kun! Never, ever be seduced by those lewd books," Guy responded.

"I promise, Guy-sensei!" the youth stated.

As one would expect, it led to a creepy hug that had Neji move away from them as he tried to avoid the unbreakable sunset genjutsu. He knew that, like Kakashi, Yue wasn't as absorbed in the book as it seemed, that she was still listening and looking, deciding on what information was useful and which wasn't. Kakashi's 'cool and hip' attitude was just him not reacting to the oddity that was Might Guy's personality.

The medics cleared Mea, saying that she only suffered from a light migraine and was fit to fight again. The announcer asked Yue and Mea to report to the battlefield for the second last match of the tournament.

"You're looking a little shaky there. Should I give you a handicap?" Yue asked, stowing her signed collector's edition Icha Icha Tactics. She still preferred 'The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi' to the Icha Icha series, but the smut did have its merits. For one, it was better written, meaning Jiraiya had improved as a writer since his first book. Maybe he should re-write it...

Mea scoffed. "You're already sealing your ninjutsu, chakra and any abilities you have as a hanyō, what more could you do?"

"I can fight with my right hand only," Yue offered, cracking the knuckles in said hand.

Mea thought about it, her gaze falling to the smaller blades on Yue's hips. "How about you use those?"

"Yin and Yang?" she asked, drawing the white and black short swords, spinning them with her fingers as a show of her talent with the blades, "you sure? These aren't exactly normal weapons..."

"I'd prefer to fight your strongest sword, but I guess I'll accept the dual blades forged by the Sisters of the Red Anvil," Mea stated, hefting her own blades up.

Yue flipped the white sword in her right hand into a reverse grip, assuming an unusual stance, right hand down near her hip and her other raised as if she were going to punch. "Fine then, I may not like this, but I will enjoy it."

"START!" the announcer shouted.

Yue rushed forward, as did Mea. They clashed, Yue's swords actually standing up to the heavy cleavers in spite of the massive size difference. It may have helped that Mea was trying to push her blades forward and up, against Yue's strict forward pressure. The lock broke and Mea struck, one blade going vertical while the other went horizontal. Yue jumped back, performing an aerial pirouette to avoid the attack and smack one of the cleavers off target, but her coat lost part of one tail, falling to the ground with a light, but still too loud thud.

Mea looked down at the torn fabric and kicked it, the cloth rolling over to present pitch black handles. "Whoa, you hid kunai on your jacket's tails, eh?"

Yue nodded. "They blend in well enough."

Mea charged forward, sweeping her blades repeatedly to force Yue to continue backpedaling to avoid getting hacked apart. When her back thumped into the wall, Mea smirked as she drove her weapons forward. Yue dropped to the ground and, after taking her swords in her mouth by their handles, ran on all fours to get away from Mea, swing her head to slice into the woman's leg slightly as she went passed her.

"Running is boring, how about a Ruuko move?" Mea asked, looking excited as she advanced on the young woman she was facing.

Yue stood up, took the black blade from her mouth, then tossed it into the air, hard. With that, everyone's gaze shot skyward and it wasn't until Mea's gaze fell that it was seen to be a distraction, which Yue used in an attempt to slash Mea's clothes apart with rapid attacks from multiple angles.

"Naughty, naughty kitty cat. I've heard about you being a lesbian, but I didn't think you'd go stripping me to get my attention," Mea said, waving one of her cleaver like it was her finger.

"Can't fight without clothes, that's what I was planning!" Yue yelled as she started swinging at Mea, using her one blade so quickly that Mea was forced to defend, letting the smaller blade leave bright streaks of damaged metal on her cleavers.

_'Dammit! I can't fight back!'_ Mea thought as she stepped back again and again. While Yin would never cut her blades apart, if Mea were forced to the wall, Yue could possibly smash the heavy cleavers back into her opponent's face, knocking her out.

Thunk!

"Wha-waaaaaah!" Mea cried out, tripping over something behind her. She fell onto her back, her arms flat on the ground. She winced when Yue dropped onto her shoulders, pinning them down with her knees, the white blade of Yin pressed to Mea's face.

"Do you give up?" Yue asked, happy with the result.

Mea looked at what she had tripped over: Yang. "You tricked me twice with that sword..."

Yue nodded. "You didn't think that I had that much trouble pushing you back, did you?"

Mea smirked a bit. "I'll yield, but on one condition."

"What would that be?" Yue asked, frowning.

"I want to fight you while you use your strongest sword: the black blade!" Mea shouted, clearly excited.

_'Black blade?'_ Every member of Team Guy thought at the same moment.

_'Yue's known as 'Red Blade.' What is this black sword about then?'_ Tenten thought, remembering the rumors of the ninja armed with a blood red sword. She felt slightly excited too.

Neji looked to Yang, deciding that it wasn't the black sword. From what he could see, Yue had no sealing scrolls with her, so what was the deal with this black sword? 

Guy and Lee just wondered what could be so special about a black sword.

Yue looked to the announcer. "If I agree, and I pull out the black sword, will I be disqualified?"

"Since it won't be an official match, no," the man said, just as confused as everyone else.

Yue nodded. "Fine, give up then."

Mea nodded and dropped her cleavers. "I forfeit," she said, relaxing.

"Winner: Yue!" the announcer shouted as Yue got off Mea's shoulders, then helped the woman to her feet. Mea took up her blades and watched as Yue returned to where she had started the fight, though she did gather Yang and sheathed the sister blades again.

"If you value those cleavers, use something else," Yue stated.

Mea clanged her blades together. "I'm good."

"That's what they all think..." Yue muttered as the unmistakable feel of chakra started to flow off of her.

The crowd watched in mild shock as a black maelstrom of chakra whirled around Yue, bits of silver whirling within it. Yue brought her hands together, forcing her chakra to compress, her actually putting effort into holding it for a moment, then she released it, a black ball of fire whirling before her.

"That's Amaterasu!" Guy shouted, shocked that Yue produced it without the aid of her mangekyō sharingan.

Neji kept his eyes on the ball and Yue. Her chakra system was in overload, her chakra raging through it, especially on her back where most of the silver chakra came from. The ball worried him too, he'd never seen nearly solidified chakra before, unless you counted that time nearly three years ago when he and the others were trapped in that strange doton from the Sound Four member. That ball of chakra Naruto made was amazing.

Yue's left hand shot into the flames, searching for a moment before she seemed to grip something. She drew her hand back, a pitch black sword coming out of the Amaterasu as it grew smaller and smaller until it vanished as the end of the sword came into the open, wisps of the black flame being pulled into the tip of the sword.

"It's a Flammenschwert!" Tenten squealed like a fan girl, then blushed when everyone stared at her.

The weapon indeed resembled what Tenten had said, though the extended guard looked more like a plume of flame that the slightly waved blade erupted from. It was also pitch black, not even light reflecting off of it.

"Why would that be against the rules?" Lee wondered.

Yue took the blade in two hands, laying the tip on the ground. **"Onmyōton: ****Ryūzetsu,"** she stated as smoke started to rise from the now super heated concrete. A shadowy flame seemed to surround the blade.

Neji's eyes widened as he heard the name and, more importantly, watched a chakra system, complete with coils, awaken within the new sword. "It's ninjutsu, a sword formed from ninjutsu!" he shouted in pure shock and awe. At that point, Guy and Lee were too shocked to point out that Neji was 'youthful' for a moment.

Yue swung the blade up and into a ready position, holding its long handle. "Your cleavers...I'll reduce them to molten metal," she stated, a strange purple sheen along the edge of the blade.

Mea tried to defend, she really did, but the black sword came down without halting at all, the tip barely grazing her weapons. A very hot wind blew by her, reminding her of a volcano she visited once, then watched as her blades cleanly snapped where the tip of Yue's sword ghosted them, steam rising off the edges as a few drops of molten metal fell to meet the sliced off portions of the cleavers.

"What...happened?" Mea asked, then her clothes suddenly snapped apart at the front, making the woman drop her destroyed weapons to hold her armor shut. "That was dirty!" she roared, her tanned face turning red.

The black sword, Ryūzetsu was shoved into the snapped cleavers, melting them into a puddle of liquid metal. "You can't fight if you're in danger of indecent exposure," she simply stated, pulling out Icha Icha Tactics and waiting for Tenten to arrive. The black sword vanished in a flit of Amaterasu, leaving the molten metal to cool on its own.

Mea left the field for the change rooms so she could grab some clothes and watch the match. She didn't want to miss the match, and she was happy too. "I knew she could destroy those things," she muttered to herself.

After a moment, Tenten was on the field, facing a rogue friend of a friend. Both of them tuned out the crowd's cheers, or some calls for Yue's death, focusing on each other. They were aware of the world, they were just waiting for the signal to start.

"BEGIN!" the announcer shouted.

Yue took up kunai, six of them, and threw them with deadly accuracy. Tenten used a pair of her own kunai to deflect the throwing daggers, only to hop back when Yue rushed in from the side, using the kunai barrage as a smokescreen. The weapon mistress brought out her nunchaku, figuring she'd need it against Yue. She remembered their earlier fight in the Land of Wind, how it was even more brutally one sided than her match against Temari. She knew Yue couldn't use genjutsu, sharingan or enhance her speed with chakra due to the tournament rules, but Yue was naturally strong and fast, add to it that those trained in gōken got even faster, stronger and more resilient made this fight a tough one.

Yue, predictably, lightly bent the rules of the tournament, using Yin in her right hand while striking at Tenten with kicks and punches, even the odd shoulder tackle was used. This wasn't against the rules, since they didn't specify that one had to use their weapon to attack, just that they needed a weapon in hand. By using her short sword to deflect the bashing weapon, using her feet to limit Tenten's movements by stepping up and tangling the brown haired girl's legs with her own, and finally knocking her off balance with decently hard punches, it was safe to say that Tenten was being overwhelmed by Yue.

_'She's pushing me harder than Lee and Guy,'_ Tenten thought as she got up, gritting her teeth as she put effort into getting by Yue's Ruuko sword style, or what she thought was the Ruuko sword style. She had come up with a plan and was waiting for the right moment to spring it. The plan was to let Yue strike with Yin, close her nanchaku on it and twist the blade out of Yue's grasp. With the girl off balance and unarmed, Tenten would deliver a few sweeping blows to Yue, possibly knocking her out of the competition.

Nothing in this world could stand between Tenten and a horde of weapons!

Yue, without warning, drove a palm strike into Tenten's stomach, then retreated with a couple rapid backward hops.

"Wha-what are you...doing?" Tenten wheezed. Yue's palm strike had hit the diaphragm dead on, knocking the wind out of the weapon user and making her breathing a slight bit difficult.

Yue sheathed Yin, drew out Aka Kubikirihōchō with her left hand and assumed a recognizable stance as Mea came out again with a t-shirt and jeans.

"A dragonfly stance? Is she insane?" Mea asked, confused.

Yue went forward, blade held almost dead still, taking aim on Tenten with the soon to be delivered death slash. Tenten had tried to move out of the way, but Yue adjusted her movements to keep Tenten in line with the slash. As a last ditch move, Tenten pulled out a pair of katana, laying them over each other and the folded nunchaku, hoping against reality that they'd last the strike.

Swoosh! Clink! Clink! Clink!

….CRUNCH!

Tenten was consumed in a quick dervish of concrete dust as Yue's blade came down, the ground shattering on impact with the red sword. All people saw was dust and Tenten's now snapped weapons flying out of the dust cloud.

"TENTEN!" Lee and Guy shouted, worried for their teammate.

Yue stepped out of the dust cloud, then turned and swung hard, the force cleaving the cloud in two. With that done, it dispersed quickly, revealing Tenten, unharmed, staring forward in mild shock.

A man in the crowd raised an eye brow. "So she pulled the strike back enough to avoid hurting her opponent by stepping backward at the last moment... Last time I saw that style of movement, it was Ruuko Nozomu doing it..."

Another man turned to the one who had spoken. "Excuse me, did you say something just now, Mifune-san?"

The samurai shook his head. "No, nothing."

With Tenten weaponless and making no move to arm herself as the countdown came to zero, the announcer nodded. "Winner: Kazeneko Yue!" The reactions were mixed, some cheering as one would expect from this tournament, others were cursing Yue and telling her to die for her greatest crime of all: living.

Yue ignored them and waited as the prize was brought down for her to claim, in addition to the scrolls and sheathes for the various weapons. Once they were all there, everyone gathered was shocked when she walked past everything and took only five weapons out of the whole collection: three kunai and two unusual blades. "I don't deserve the rest, so I say Tenten and Mea should split what's left," the hanyō said as she walked over to the two.

The announcer and the sponsors of the tournament were dumbstruck. "But you won fair and square, why refuse what you earned?" an older man asked.

Yue twirled one of the kunai a bit as her other hand held the two crescent blades she had also taken. "I was drawn to these little daggers, and I recognized these blades the moment I saw them. I was originally going to just take the kunai, but these blades are special to me."

"How could you recognize them? They are brand new, never before seen weapon designs. They don't even have a name yet," a master blacksmith said, pointing to the blades.

"I recognize them because I designed them, but the one I showed them to couldn't make them so he sent the design to those he thought could make it. The balance was near impossible to produce, but these ones are perfectly balanced. As for their name... I haven't even thought of that yet," Yue admitted.

The blacksmith was slack jawed. He had been the one to forge the weapons, after much trial and error, but to think that they were the product of a Ruuko's mind, no wonder they were difficult to make and use. "But why not take the other weapons for yourself?" he asked.

"Listen to the crowd. They want me dead and I guarantee you that all those weapons would become part of the reward for my head. I'd rather people who aren't wanted for treason to have them," Yue explained, then looked to Tenten, "here! I did promise after all. Besides, I don't deserve this either!"

Before Tenten could ask what was going on, a black flare of chakra burst in front of Yue and she used her foot to toss a large sealing scroll so it landed at Tenten's feet. When she looked up to see what Yue's game was, the girl seemed to burst into a cloud of ash.

_[A day and a half later, Konoha]_

This was the first time she'd received a report on Yue's movements and could smile. Yue hadn't stolen any jutsu that could get her in trouble, didn't kill anyone in a position of power and she hadn't done anything questionable since her run-in with Team Kurenai, though there was one thing that bothered her.

Tsunade looked at the scroll that Yue had left with Tenten and the Hokage could only frown at it.

"I was right, wasn't I?" Tenten asked.

The Godaime Hokage nodded with a sigh. "I never did learn of its fate, to think the Ruuko had it..."

Guy was confused. "Are you sure they had it, Hokage-sama? Yue-kun could have found it while outside of Konoha."

That was a viable option, but Tsunade didn't think it was likely, so she shook her head. "No, I think the Ruuko clan had it in their possession, but probably didn't know it."

Neji looked over the scroll. "The sealing scroll of Hashirama Senju, the Shodai Hokage, the very same scroll that had almost all his weapons sealed inside of it..."

Tsunade nodded, remembering the scroll well. "Shizune!" she called.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama?" the brunette asked as she came into the office.

"Can you take this scroll to the mansion's sealed room? I'll put it where it belongs later," Tsunade said as she pat the scroll.

Shizune didn't ask any questions, waiting until a later time, and she did as she was asked.

"Finally, something I can tell the council. I'm pretty sure if they learn that she returned the scroll to Konoha, they will look upon her more favorably," Tsunade said with a small grin.

"I, Might Guy, will also tell the council of how Yue returned the Shodai Hokage's scroll to Tenten-kun!" the loud man declared.

Tsunade smiled, happy that she'd not sound like an old woman attempting to lie the council onto her side.

_[Somewhere else, that night]_

"UWAAAAAH!"

Slice! Splash!

"NO! STOP!"

Slash! Sploosh!

A crimson blade came to rest as the blood dripped off of it, the liquid falling effortlessly off the sword. It was hefted up to rest on its master's shoulder, the remaining blood flicking off due to the motion.

Yue stood over the corpses of a hundred men and women, blood all over her torn clothes as she looked around, left left eye closed due to a migraine or something that turned her left eye into a sensitive pain center. "Who ordered this attack?" Yue asked, glaring at a woman who had been using a spear a few moments ago.

"I-It isn't an attack, we we-were told to capture you if you resisted!" the woman stuttered, half crazed from fear.

Yue swung her blade down, the weapon stopping a bare inch from the woman's face, who cowered down into the near lake of blood beneath her. "WHO ordered it?"

"I-I don't know! Some woman in a high cut business suit!" the spear woman yelped, trying to slide backward over slick blood. A few seconds more of staring at the blade and slipping had the woman pass out from fear.

Yue swung the sword back up, but placed it on her back instead of cutting the woman down. "First those strange ANBU, then this small army... Some people want me for some odd reason... Could it be my sharingan that they want, my reimyō buki or both?"

"Yue-sama!" Mana shouted as she dropped into the area, breathing in relief when she saw that her master wasn't among the dead.

"Nee-san, you really messed the place up," Tayuya stated, looking around at the place.

"There were more, but they started running after I killed fifty of their number," Yue said, pulling off her torn jacket, "damn, I just got this one too... **Amaterasu**..." She tossed the now flaming rags onto the killing ground, knowing that the flames would eat most of the corpses before it was extinguished.

"So we got a new job?" Tayuya asked.

Yue went to shake her head, but a figure emerged from the forest before her. "Looks like we might," she said as she took the jacket the figure was holding out for her. This one was slightly different from the rest, not that she cared much.

"Let's go to a more private setting before we discuss your mission," the man said.

**-Preview-**

**Depths of the heart-**

Killer Bee couldn't believe what he was seeing. A non-jinchūriki had just stood before the Falls of Truth and, shockingly enough, he could see her 'true self' step out of the waterfall, a version of her wearing some kind of greyish/black dress-like armor.

The armored nekomata hanyō stepped behind the one in a ragged jacket. "So you would come here in spite of the dangers this place presents to one such as you. What do you want to know that only we know, but you don't?" the armored one asked.

"You know what I want to know," the regularly clothed hanyō coldly stated, "talk to me or I'll step off this spot and banish you back into the darkness of my soul, Aoi."

The armored one, Aoi smirked slightly. "So we're doing that, Ruuko Yue, or would you prefer Kuro? While I do know what you want, and what you need to know, I want to hear you say it, and I want you to call me properly, 11th Cage."

_'Eleventh cage? What's that mean?'_ Killer Bee thought to himself. His tailed beast had no answer, but thanked him for not rapping.

"11th fallen soul, tell me what my name is," Yue said, hiding her eyes behind her bangs.

Aoi leaned close to Yue's ear. "Tell me, what do you deserve, hanyō?"

Yue remained silent for a moment. "...Suffering."

Aoi pulled Yue's chain up to feel what hung on it. She smiled slightly. "And what can you never have?" she asked as she walked around Yue.

"Love..." Yue answered, shaking slightly.

"And what is it you truly wish for? We both know it isn't you name," Aoi said, hugging Yue around her neck from behind.

Yue refused to answer, or she didn't know the answer. After a moment, Killer Bee noticed that the girl was trembling, that she was crying too.

Aoi finally opened her eyes, the unholy appearance of those eyes scaring even the Hachibi. "What you truly want is release, not you name. You could care less about who and what you are, you just want to finally die, and stay dead this time! This world is nothing more than a waking nightmare, a torturous illusion that is worse than any image a mangekyō can show you." She remained silent for a moment, then whispered something into Yue's ear before she released her and walked back to the waterfall. "By the way, Yue, _she_ will appear soon and when that happens, you and I will cease to exist. She won't need us anymore."

With that last warning, Aoi stepped into the waterfall and vanished.

**A/N~**

And after this, we return to our regularly scheduled programing, meaning events that actually happened in the manga/anime.

I know some of this sucked, but cutting the ninjutsu and chakra out of a pair of ninja would seriously drop their fighting ability down, and Yue didn't have to kill anyone in the tournament, so she couldn't show off her true talent as a sword bearing assassin.

And this would have been out much sooner, but I am trying to read and plan out the rest of Naruto, play Lightning Returns, write Kyūbi's Kit and other things. It didn't help much either that the government decided to give me a big, fat middle finger and decide I wouldn't get any of my taxes this year despite my returns coming to almost $300.

As always, I'll fix all my errors later on, probably before the final chapters are put up.

**Jutsu Index-**

**Tenbatsu** [Damnation] – A kenjutsu maneuver that relies on slicing at the opponent's major muscle groups/nerve bundles to render them unable to react due to the heavy damage to their bodies, then a heavy cleaving strike lays their chest wide open for a slow, painful death. A weakened variant cuts deeply enough to temporarily incapacitate the opponent with pain. Based off Ruuko Nozomu's famous 'Yūsei.'

**Onmyoton: Ryuzetzu** [Yin-Yang release: Dragon Tongue] – One of Yue's reimyō buki, the blade that represents the blaze release. It is unknown what abilities it has, other than being capable of heating its edge up tremendously. Has its own chakra system, though this may be the case for all reimyō buki.

**Interesting note-**

I was just researching the Seven Mist swords and I noticed something interesting between Yue and the previous generation of the swordsmen.

Seven Swordsmen-

Sharpened teeth (described as shark-like)

Names related to fruit (is this Naruto or One Piece?)

Prodigy swordmasters

Wore bandages around their necks

At least three were missing-nin, one was a traitor and leaked information to another source

Two faked their own deaths

Each carries one of the Seven Mist Swords

Yue-

Sharp teeth (cat-like canines)

Name is related to an orb (the moon in this case)

Wore bandages around her neck (part I)

Prodigy swordmaster

Became a missing-nin and leaked Akatsuki related information to Jiraiya at least once

Faked her own death(?)

Carries one of the Seven Mist Swords

I'm telling you I did not plan on making this many links between her and the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, it just happened this way!

**Responses-**

**Bakaneko-chan11:** Glad you liked it, so here's the new one.

**Sky Zephyrus:** Kishi doesn't want to redeem Sasuke, he just prefers him over Naruto. Think about it, Sasuke always gets what he needs and wants, Naruto only started to get what he truly needed by Part II. Also, Sasuke is praised by everyone while Naruto only has a handful of people praising him. It is utterly pathetic how Naruto is being repeatedly shafted almost every other chapter lately.

Fics that you might like... Hmm, I'd suggest 'Unforeseen Consequences' (that's how it is spelled) It is a NaruSakuIno, but at least Forehead finally decides it is time to stop being a dumbass and get the guy. Hmm, I think The Ark is good too. Dragon Champion is a NaruHarem story (he gets Sakura, Ino, Hinata, Tenten, Temari, Anko, Kurenai, Kin, Tayuya, at least) Naruto's travels is a fic from the baka's eyes that involves him and Sakura getting together, along with Ino and Hinata. Mercy of the Shinigami is a good one, and it is funny watching Naruko hiss at Sakura and Ino for taking her beloved little brother away from her. I don't know if NekoNaruto is still going, but it is good. Check 'Day by Day' as well. Most straight up NaruSaku fics are discontinued, oneshots or things that you don't want to read because they are not that good.

**The Keeper of Worlds:** Who said Jiraiya's fanbase was all human? As you saw in this chapter, Yue reads it as well.

**Yuri-Hime-Chan:** The bathhouse master is actually a combination of Tessai from Bleach, the Raikage and the cook for the exorcists in D-Grey Man. He may seem gay, but he isn't, that's just his style. (who is that guy and what is FoZ?) I figured that people would love more of their favorite foul mouthed ex-Sound kunoichi and resident horned girl, Tayuya. Mana will get even more screen time later on, when she starts to butt heads with Ino over who truly deserves Yue's affections.

Uzumaki Zoe and her sister are a pair of ninja from an unknown village that was destroyed in a large bandit raid. The two of them are survivors like Karin and Nagato and they are pure bred Uzumaki as well. The two sisters, Zoe being the younger one, have the ability to have multiple summon contracts and can even summon specific beings if they brand them properly. Iris acts as a kind of scout for her younger sister. Zoe also has the chakra chain ability, but doesn't use it often because it prevents her from summoning.

**Thedarkpokemaster:** I'm letting him live because I want him to experience Naruto's life. You heard me right, people will GLARE at him, whisper behind his back and pull their children/daughters away from him because of his past actions. He's going to be the village pariah and the best part is that the emo wrist cutter deserves it! MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ahem! Yes, the reasons for Yue becoming as she is now will be revealed later on, along with other mysteries involving her.

**Super saiyan Sakura Haruno:** Glad you like it so far. As for the chances of a NaruSaku ending, I highly doubt it. Kishi will probably go Inuyasha on us and somehow have all the characters suffer massive emotional changes (read: have strokes) and we'll end up with SakuSasu and NaruHina mushiness all over the damn place, that's if Naruto and Sasuke survive the war.

**NaruSaku fan 100:** Yue does rock, but I made it so that she's not the most powerful fighter in any one category. She can beat people stronger than her because, as shown numerous times, most characters tend to excel in one or two categories, not multiple ones like Yue does. She is adaptable and flexible, which is better than most of the rigid characters in Naruto that focus on only one or two aspects of being a ninja. (Itachi is the exception to that rule, since his boss level is at the 'Sephiorth level')

As for why people like Hinata, I say it's the boobs or they just like meek characters with big boobs. I personally don't like her much and I don't see her as the 'major supporting character' that Narutopedia labels her as. Sakura is the major supporting character, Hinata is the creepy-ish stalker girl who snapped Naruto out of one episode. She doesn't match with Naruto and, as we all know, Kushina told Naruto to get with a girl like his mother, and only Sakura is like that firebrand.

And while I'm here, I prefer girls were more moderate busts.

**Sakura fan 55:** I kind of modeled Yue's personality after Itachi's for now. She's serious, distant and she is showing signs that she's slipping down a path that won't end well for her if she follows it to the end. Of course, she still has funny moments, especially around Tayuya and Mana.

No, Basher was just a douche who harped on a guy because he accidentally copied a few chapters from another story. (he would have written an original story, but Basher bombarded him with e-mails and negative reviews, making him leave the site permanently) He actually turned around and said that any story I would write would be 99% from other stories on this site. Guess he was wrong, the uncreative jackass.

**Rose Contestshipping fan88:** In other words, a non-wrist cutting, non-emo version of Sasuke that has a heart that does more than pump blood throughout his body. Yeah, I was aiming for that. Anyone notice that Naruto seems to be more spirited in his attempts to bring Yue back as opposed to Sasuke?

**Rocketshipping fan:** You haven't seen any of her pain yet, not even a tenth of it. It will take a lot more than just Ino dragging Yue out of the darkness, it will take a couple people to do it. Trust me, Yue is a few small steps away from being screwed up for life and nothing in her immediate future is going to help prevent a few of those steps from being taken. Let's put it this way: Yue will fall and be lost before her friends save her.

**Guest:** Orochimaru raided their graves for any form of genetic tissue he could grab, which could be flesh, hair or even bones. Karin is more of a pure Uzumaki than Naruto, and she was royally PISSED OFF, so that is understandable. (remember, pure Uzumaki have red hair) Naruto didn't gain the sealing jutsu ability of the Uzumaki, so that and the chains are things he doesn't have. I also think that the chains are a high chakra control deal, since everyone who has used them so far has been described as being 'extremely skilled at chakra control.'

You'll need to see who Yue's enemies are later on. Let's just say that things get complicated next chapter. Yue also has a bit more of her sanity crack off and sent adrift.


	33. Fatal strokes to the heart

Chapter 33: Fatal strokes to the heart

Note: It is finally here: we get to find out who Yue's second wife is! Mana unmasks herself in this chapter!

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

When one is told that they have to go somewhere to make sure a VIP is safely able to leave the area, one expects the VIP in question to be harmless, besieged, terrified even.

Kazeneko Yue and her team arrived on the scene to find what they expected to be the opposite of reality.

While Naruto was furthering his ability to use fūton ninjutsu in order to make an ultimate jutsu, Yue arrived at what could only be described as a one-sided slaughter.

Team Asuma, Ino and Choji just arriving, and the two extra chūnin with them were surprised to see them, but not as surprised as Yue was to see them, Ino specifically.

_'Beautiful...'_ Yue thought as she stared at the young woman who, even after Yue drowned herself in so much blood and slaughter, done so much to kill her ability to feel love and happiness due to the pain that they always brought her, managed to fill her heart with light and made her feel almost weightless, almost...hopeful.

It was dangerous to think like that.

"What... Yue's here?" Asuma wondered to himself, shocked at her appearance. She looked like a slightly shorter version of her mother, aside from the silver bang and one of her eyes being orange. That and Luna always went around in that dress of hers, with a slit up one side and quite a modest amount of cleavage showing.

"Hahahahaha!" Hidan laughed, his severed neck hurt, but he kept going anyway as he pointed at Yue, "look at her face, all red like her sharingan! And the look in her eyes, she's a love sick dog!"

Yue growled and drew one of her kunai, one of a specific set, and threw it into the man's side. When he grinned, his way of saying it was worthless, Yue held her hand up and, with a snap of her fingers, severed the chakra thread and detonated the kunai in his side.

"Fuuuuuuccck!" he groaned, smoke pouring out of his side, "shit! It's one of those burning ones too!"

"Steel forged so it can easily be shattered from an internal explosive force, white phosphorus filling the hollowed out core, that is my new flechette kunai," Yue explained. Of course, without the application of chakra, preferably by way of a chakra thread, it was impossible to set the bomb aspect of the weapon off without setting it on fire with katon.

Kakuzu sighed as he used his threads to rip the burning chunks of steel out of his partner's side, though he made it painful so the moron might learn to dodge things that were thrown at him. Since he could only seal up cuts and the like, he left Hidan with a slightly shredded side.

"Yue, why are you here?" Choji demanded.

Shikamaru sighed. "Look at her closely. She's not friendly, not to us anyway"

Everyone saw her clothes, but they didn't want to believe it.

"Oh, I see you've finally adopted our colors and mark, Kazeneko Yue," Kakuzu praised, nodding slightly in approval.

Yue's new jacket was just like her old ones, but it was held shut with a red zipper rather than buttons and clips. Right down the front, along the zipper, was a red streak like a trail of blood, red clouds on either bicep near the shoulder, the end of the tails at the front and, probably, one on her back beneath the curtain of black hair. The sleeves were shortened, barely passing a few inches beyond her elbows, but the basic design was the same. The interior lining was red as well. Peeking from the opened part of her raised collar was a slashed Konoha forehead protector, the band being purple in color.

"Kazeneko Yue, A-rank missing-nin and Akatsuki's assassin. My mission is to ensure these two zombies escape with their unlives," Yue stated in a flat tone, her sharingan locked on those before her. She had her hand on the handle of her sword, ready to draw it at a moment's notice.

"Hey! I'm not a zombie!" Hidan shouted.

"Your head was cut off and you're still won't shut up! If you're not a zombie, you're something else that's already dead!" Tayuya snapped, creeped out by these two guys. She knew that Mana felt the same as well.

"The proper term is immortal," Kakuzu corrected, wondering if he could still cash in on Asuma.

"Immortals don't die. I could kill both of you, though it'd be difficult," Yue said.

"Jashin-sama granted me immortality," Hidan protested. He'd tried, and failed, to impress the beliefs of Jashin upon the prodigy of death before him.

Yue pulled out a kunai, one with a bomb tag attached to it. "If I shove this down your throat, no amount of thread will fix you. A true immortal could survive their head being blown to bits."

Hidan paled slightly, never having tested if he could survive what Yue suggested, not that he wanted to find out. Either way, he grinned at the fact that everyone was paying attention to Yue, not where his feet were.

Yue noticed, her eyes widening. "HIDAN! Retreat!" she roared as she turned, drawing her sword to sever his legs.

The crazed man laughed as everyone realized that he was, once more, standing upon his seal. "This time, NOTHING will stop me!" he declared, extending his retractable spear again as he reactivated his curse jutsu.

The two chūnin attempted to get at him, but Kakuzu stopped them by launching his hands at their throats. A quick look at their faces told him that there was no need to kill them, since he wouldn't make any money off their corpses.

Yue dropped her sword, knowing that the damage would transfer, deciding on tackling him instead. She went for broke, lightning arcing off her body as she vanished, a blast wave of dirt and lightning arcs left behind.

BOOM!

Hidan literally vanished, reappearing a dozen feet away with Yue on top of him. "I told you to-" she started.

"Ahhhhhh, that's the stuff~~~~" he groaned in bliss, the spear stuck through his chest already.

Yue's eyes widened and she slowly looked back, her sharingan reaching the scene in time to see Asuma fall forward, blood coming out from under his flak jacket. As with everything seen with her sharingan, the image was permanently burned into her memories.

Hidan pushed Yue off as he got up, ignoring the Konoha ninja's reaction to Asuma being fatally wounded. He yanked the spear loose, closed it up and put it away. "I'm done Kakuzu."

Kakuzu decided that he would kill the two men, mainly because he wanted to retrieve Asuma's body so he could cash in on it. These two looked like they might disagree.

Yue growled, a mark on her back starting to glow with blazing white light. "GET AWAY FROM THEM!" she roared, a massive vortex kicking into existence with Yue as its center.

The two members of Akatsuki moved back, remembering Yue's power. "Been a while since I've seen them," Kakuzu stated.

"Kakuzu! She shredded my arm!" Hidan yelped, holding up his sliced up arm.

"What the hell..." Kotetsu muttered, having only seen such wind power from Temari from Sunagakure.

Yue stepped forward, the winds fading away. **"Omnyoton: ****Soyokaze Rakka,"** she growled. She had some kind of silver greaves on her legs, the feet ending with talons on the front and back of the foot. When she shifted one foot back, the talons actually moved in a manner similar to that of a bird's foot despite being solid metal.

"You guys are-" Hidan started, a huge grin on his face.

"**Toppū kōtei,"** Yue muttered as she took a half step forward, vanishing with a gust of wind.

"-so dead!" the crazed masochist stated.

Yue appeared before him, claw adorned foot aimed at Hidan's chest, wind roaring around it. **"****Suihei funsai!"** she shouted as she hit the man, sending him flying back in a powerful vortex, blood falling from the three deep gashes in his chest.

Kakuzu looked at Yue in shock. "What are you doing? Your mission is to make sure we escape."

Yue glared back at the man. "And to tell you two to haul ass! You were only sent after Chiriku, Sarutobi Asuma was NOT your target! If _he_ learns of this, your 'immortality' will be forfeit!"

"Money is money. Either way, he'll see we were right," Kakuzu said.

Yue glared at the two men as a crow flew down to land on her shoulder. "I'm letting this happen," she said as dozens of crows flew by her, blocking their vision while Yue seemingly faded into the mass of black feathers. Kakuzu was nearly stabbed when he noticed a pitch blade katana punch forward. A new Konoha ninja had used the crows to strike during the confusion, though he'd probably attempted to catch Yue first.

Yue reappeared a small distance from the zombies of Akatsuki, her sharingan still burning with rage as the crow took flight from her shoulder. "Retreat now, or you'll be stitching Hidan back together for the next month," she warned, standing on a thin metal pole sticking out of the wall.

"I'm not leaving that bounty behind," Kakuzu stated.

Yue closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again and glared at him with her mangekyō. "How about I cash in on your bounty?" she asked, her chakra rising and becoming slightly visible.

Kakuzu wasn't stupid, he knew that Yue knew of his weak points and, with heavy usage of her bloodline abilities, she could at the very least weaken him greatly. With a ton of luck, she might even kill him. As for Hidan... yeah, she'd kill him and knowing that sadomaso freak, he'd enjoy every moment of it.

_'Kakuzu. Hidan. Yue relayed my order to retreat. Why are you still there?'_ a voice in their heads commanded, sounding stern as it said the men's names.

"It was just getting good!" Hidan whined.

_'We need to draw the Rokubi out of its jinchūriki now. Either move or I'll allow Yue to slice your legs off and I won't let Kakuzu reattach them until the sealing is complete. You know the bijū come first,'_ the voice calmly stated.

"Just a few...seconds more!" Hidan continued whining.

Yue held her hand back, sparks shooting off to Aka Kubikirihōchō, drawing the blade back to her hand.

"Hidan, shut up or else I'll hold you still while she slowly saws through your legs with the dullest, rustiest sword I can find," Kakuzu stated as he appeared next to the annoying religious masochist, "as for all you Konoha ninja, I WILL be back for his body and the bounty, so don't go getting attached to it or burning it for a funeral."

"Damn... Until next time then," Hidan groaned as he and his partner shunshined away.

Yue looked back as Team Asuma gathered around the dying man. Since she couldn't do anything at all, she signaled her team to retreat and they vanished. Yue lagged behind, just long enough for Asuma to be the first to notice her eyes, her mangekyō, and not lose his memory or have it hidden. He saw something else in her eyes and he gave her a small smile that said, 'I forgive you.' Yue flinched and vanished in a burst of wind.

Ino instantly went to use medical ninjutsu to heal her sensei, but he reached up and stopped her hands from moving. "Enough...I can't be saved and you three know it."

"Ino! Heal him anyway!" Shikamaru commanded.

Ino easily pressed through her sensei's weak arms and found that his heart was just short of being destroyed. She knew after a moment that even Tsunade couldn't heal this level of damage.

"Just when I finally understand my old man, I have to go and get killed," Asuma said, a grin on his face. "And here I thought Kakashi was slow, heh." He looked at his team. "You three, listen to me and commit it to your hearts." He told all three various things, like Choji going on a diet and how Ino shouldn't lose to Sakura. Lastly, he told Shikamaru what he meant when he spoke of the 'most important piece' in Konoha.

He coughed a few times, deciding on passing on his final words to someone else that was no longer present, as well as offer advice to those gathered.

"Kazeneko Yue, why are you hurting yourself? You belong in Konoha and I hope my students can help you return," the man said as loudly as he could. He looked to Ino and smirked, deciding to pull one last prank, "and I hope you get Ino to love you too, she needs a steady lover." He felt that Yue deserved love as well, especially after what she had been through, especially after what he had done to her.

Ino blushed, angry that her sensei brought up how her longest relationship lasted a month and a half. "A-Asuma-sensei!" she snapped, even as tears ran down her cheeks.

The man smiled at them. "Ah, now I think I could use a smoke. I promised Kurenai I'd quit, just not like this." When his very last cigarette was placed in his mouth and lit, He and his team remembered how he had accidentally breathed smoke all over them on their first meeting. He thought of them, of their adventures, of the embarrassment of his relationship with Kurenai being so easily uncovered. He smiled to himself, realizing why his father and Naruto saw everyone as family, since he himself saw Team Asuma as part of his family. His last thoughts were of everyone back home, his lover and unborn child, those lost to war and missions, even those led astray like Itachi and Yue.

_'Ah, so that's why it's called 'Konoha.'_ _It's our home, our tree, and it connects all of us leaves together as one family,'_ he thought, seeing the image of his father smile and nod in approval as he held his hand out.

Asuma's cigarette fell to the ground, no longer finding support from the dead man. Just like with the deceased Hokage and those lost when Orochimaru attacked Konoha, the heavens themselves wept at the passing of Sarutobi Asuma. Shikamaru took up the cigarette for himself and re-lit it, blaming it for his tears.

Not too far away, Yue's clone shed a few tears, then vanished in a puff of expended chakra.

_[Four days later, a random path of forest]_

"Three non-bloody days of doing nothing at all... Who do I look like, Itachi or ninja kitty over there?" Hidan asked, pointing his scythe at Yue, who was meditating while using her level 1 curse seal.

Kakuzu ignored his baggage, er, partner. Or at least he did before the religious nut pointed in the opposite direction, towards the bounty office. "You seriously are stupid, aren't you? They saw us coming out of there, so they took the guy in and are probably waiting for us. It doesn't matter anyway, we're after the Kyūbi right now," Kakuzu explained.

Hidan sighed. "Fine, fine... Do we have to bring Yue and her team with us?"

As a hawk wheeled overhead, Kakuzu nodded. "She can slaughter anyone who tries to get in our way of collecting Kyūbi," he looked to the girl, "you okay with that, slaughtering your old friends?"

Yue opened her eyes, her sharingan flat and devoid of emotion as the curse seal receded. "Hai..." she said in a hollow tone.

_'Her eyes are lifeless... Guess being the reason the Sarutobi died pretty much killed what little spirit she has for a little while,'_ Kakuzu thought to himself.

Unknown to them, the hawk was being controlled by Ino, who relayed everything she had seen and heard to her team. Shikamaru had planned for Yue and her team shadowing Asuma's killers, so he merely told them to go with his anti-sharingan/anti-curse seal plan so they could deal with both Yue and Tayuya, no matter what they tried. Since he only knew of Yue's unusual wind weapon, he couldn't really plan for any others she might have with her, though his angry Temari counter plan worked for any strong wind user.

Thirty minutes later, the team of Akatsuki were ambushed by the Konoha team, the two actual members of Akatsuki attacked. Kakuzu completely blocked the blow while the cord of Hidan's scythe was shredded.

"It's Shikamaru, he has already mastered many of the Nara shadow ninjutsu. Avoid large shadows," Yue warned, having heard the reports from Zetsu.

"Come up with something better, because I ain't falling for it!" Hidan shouted to the hidden team of Konoha ninja.

"UP!" Kakuzu shouted.

Hidan looked up. "Kid loves explosive tags!" he shouted, pointing to the five knives with attached tags headed towards them.

The knives hit the ground and didn't explode. "The fuck..." Hidan muttered.

Yue went to produce a katon to light the trees on fire and make Shikamaru's shadows useless, but...

"He got us," Kakuzu stated, finding that, like all the others, he was unable to move anything below his neck.

"Captured," Shikamaru stated, happy he'd been able to get his hands on a few kunai made from the same material as Asuma's trench knives.

Yue growled, unable to power through the knife. She saw Hidan was annoyed at being unable to move. _'The explosive tags are not activated... If I knew he could do this, I would have deflected the kunai and knives,'_ she thought as she did the only thing she could do: release a pulse of chakra, a signal for that person to do what was needed.

Shikamaru was smart, using his shadow to pull the knife free and, with that same shadow, used Hidan's body to launch an attack at Kakuzu, knowing the quieter one was the stronger of the two. He left Yue and her team paralyzed, figuring he and his team could bring them in. He knew that he didn't have a whole lot of time either, since the knives were separate from him and the chakra would wear out quickly, especially with Yue and Tayuya possessing curse seals.

Kakuzu used his special talents to dislodge his own knife. "Foolish, attacking without even attempting to learn of my jutsu or if I had a special condition. You're quite green at this, aren't you? At least you aren't stupid like him," he said, shooting a quick glance at Hidan.

"Kakuzu! Help me out! Wait! Did you just say I was stupid?!" Hidan shouted.

Completely ignoring his baggage, Kakuzu went on. "Battlefield analysis is good and all, but there are too many deciding factors that cannot be seen with a mere glance. That is where experience comes into play."

Hidan growled as, once more, he became Shikamaru's weapon. "DO SOMETHING!" he shouted, hating every second of this. Only Jashin could move him against his will, not that it ever happened!

"Doing something," Yue said, driving a kick into Hidan's face, pushing him back enough that his scythe couldn't reach Kakuzu. The shadow clone that Shikamaru had caught dispelled itself.

Sadly, Shikamaru already had Choji jump in and crash into Kakuzu with a full force blow. Yue was tossed back, but recovered well enough and landed in a crouch.

"Yare, yare... What a pain," Kakuzu muttered as the dust settled, revealing that he hadn't suffered a scratch of damage.

"What happened?" Choji wondered.

Shikamaru nodded slightly. "I figured as much. Back when he was attacked last time, he somehow took a sword stroke without suffering from it. He can somehow harden his body to resist damage."

"Not resist, ignore. Physical damage is a thing of the past to me," Kakuzu corrected.

"Kakuzu, good job. Now get me out of this damn shadow jutsu!" Hidan whined, "and don't let that psycho cat kick me again."

"**Raikiri!"** Shred!

"Not...even...a trace," Kakuzu muttered as he looked back to see Kakashi.

"Body hardening is a doton type jutsu, meaning my raikiri, as a raiton jutsu, would easily defeat it," Kakashi lightly lectured.

Team Asuma were all feeling happy that Kakashi came with them, but then Kakuzu revealed his trump card: his mask beasts.

Yue watched as things played out. She actually smirked when the struck mask beast fell to the ground, reminding her of how her regular bunshin always collapsed like brain dead idiots. She frowned as jutsu after jutsu were launched at the jury rigged team. She watched as Shikamaru came up with a plan and executed it, making Hidan think he was in charge while, like the moron the nut was, he jumped into the enemy's palm and got himself captured, again.

Ino and Choji did watch their teammate in case he needed assistance, but they were wary because Yue was sitting down in a tree hollow, calmly watching her 'charges' get forced into a corner, even smirking at the sheer stupidity that Hidan showed against Shikamaru. The fact that Yue wasn't helping meant one of two things: she wasn't needed or she was waiting for Kakashi and Shikamaru to move into a position that was favorable for her to attack. Mana and Tayuya didn't move to help either, waiting for Yue's signal, though Tayuya kept commenting on how stupid Hidan was being.

When Shikamaru made Hidan drop his weapon, Yue created a clone and retrieved it. She had been eying the strange weapon for a while and figured that she could put it to much greater use, after mastering its use of course.

When Kakuzu went down, there was quite a bit of surprise within Yue's team, but seeing that his mask beasts were still standing, they knew it wasn't over. Of course, learning that the man was over a hundred years old was a bit of a shock, since they thought he might be forty at the most. When the man and beasts combined and the whole of Kakuzu's face became visible, Tayuya threw up and Mana looked ready to faint, but Yue had seen far worse before, which was the only reason Kakuzu respected her a slight bit.

The sudden appearance of a massively powerful wind/water storm shocked the hell out of everyone, but not so much a moment later.

"Sorry I'm late," Naruto apologized as he and his team landed in the clearing.

"Right in the nick of time," Kakashi said, smirking beneath his ruined mask.

"Sakura, Sai-san... and Naruto too!" Ino happily said, though she didn't mean to make Naruto sound like a last minute thought, she was just in that much awe that Naruto had assisted in making that massive storm of water.

"Finally, we can relax!" Choji said with relief. If it had kept up, he'd be skinnier than Ino.

"You really got roughed up, Kakashi-sensei, this guy must be tough," Naruto said, staring Kakuzu down. _'I thought Lee and Guy had facial hair problems...'_

"Weird and battered, Konoha seems to be fond of sending out the weakened ones," Kakuzu noted as he looked Naruto over.

"You have no right calling other people weird, hair freak!" Naruto shouted, then looked to Ino and Choji, "where's Shikamaru?"

"Taking on Hidan, Kakuzu's partner, somewhere else," Choji stated.

"Sai, Sakura, go back up Shikamaru. He could use a ranged type and a medic right about now," Kakashi ordered as he summoned Pakkun to lead them to the chūnin.

"Yue's over there with her team," Ino said, pointing to the hanyō.

The team in question remained passive, Yue sitting like a bored monarch as she planned on how to alter the scythe to a more deadly means, if it needed adjusting at all. "Don't mind us, our orders are quite clear and we aren't violating them," Tayuya stated, her hands held in a ram seal. Ever since Hidan left, she had been like that.

"All your increased number means is I have more options of hearts to take, though I know Kakashi will replace my lightning heart," Kakuzu stated, though how he could talk through that hair in his mouth was anyone's guess.

"This bastard's mine," Naruto said as he stepped forward.

"Come, we need to get moving," Pakkun stated.

"Naruto, be careful," Sakura said before her, the dog and Sai left to assist Shikamaru.

Kakashi asked Yamato if Naruto managed to complete his new jutsu, then found it weird when Yamato basically said a half completed jutsu was enough. As Naruto went to start fighting, Tayuya perked up a bit.

"What is it, Tayuya?" Mana asked.

"Hidan is dead," the former Oto kunoichi stated.

"Shikamaru blew his head apart and buried the chunks along with his body," Yue stated, opening her eyes and standing up.

"Shadow clone?" Mana asked.

Yue remained silent, watching Naruto's fight with her full, undivided attention. It was time to see how far he had gone since they last saw each other, in power, determination and willingness to make the difficult choices. She did make sure to keep with her orders, using a small scroll to summon, then seal Hidan's ring away. If things went the way she figured they would, she'd have three rings to return to Akatsuki soon enough. Good thing her shadow clone had swiped his ring a few minutes before he came out of his trance. Only Kakuzu's ring remained.

"**Kage bunshin no jutsu,"** Naruto said, forming a few shadow clones.

"Ah, you must be the Kyūbi jinchūriki, Uzumaki Naruto?" Kakuzu asked, having heard the brat was fond of the jutsu.

Ino and Choji were surprised, having learned that Gaara was the jinchūriki to the Ichibi. Hearing that Naruto was similar to Gaara, but bore the beast that nearly destroyed Konoha, it changed their opinion of him. To them, he seemed to be an even greater person than ever before, since he never allowed the beast to go wild or rule him like Gaara's had.

Kakashi gave everyone a brief run down on Kakuzu's abilities as a ninja, in addition to the fact that he had to die multiple times before he was truly dead because of the hearts he had stolen.

"Naruto, do it!" Yamato ordered.

Naruto wordlessly charged forward, ignoring the calls of his friends, even ignoring the slicing hair that destroyed his shadow clones, he merely watched so he could learn what he could about Kakuzu's abilities for himself. When he was certain enough of his abilities compared to Kakuzu's, he formed a number of clones and started to form his new jutsu.

"**Fūton: Rasenshuriken!"** Naruto shouted as he charged forward with his clones.

"I'll help!" Choji shouted, but was surprised when Yamato stopped him.

"Don't, you'll just get caught up in it, and you don't want that," Yamato warned.

Naruto's clones did their work, aiming for Kakuzu's masks so he'd take them as a threat, blinding him to Naruto getting close with his new jutsu. He even wished he could kick himself as the jutsu connected, or at least it would have if it didn't fade away.

"You're heart is mine, wind user!" Kakuzu shouted, his hair shooting at Naruto.

Slice!

"What?!" he gasped, looking at the lightning coated blade in front of him. "Yue! What are you doing?!" he demanded, in spite of the girl jumping out of the way, dragging Naruto back with her.

"**Fūton: Kazekiri no Jutsu!****"** Tayuya shouted, swinging her spear to launch a blade of wind at the man, slicing off more of his hair.

Mana thrust her hand forward. **"Suiton: Hahonryū!"**

Kakuzu was soaked and angry. "When _he_ hears about this-!"

Yue was overhead, lightning crackling in her right hand. "Even _he_ cannot hear the dead. **Raiton: ****Faifu!"** she shouted as a long, ax-like blade of lightning formed, which she swung down at the man.

"Dammit!" he grunted, right before the raiton struck the ground and the water conducted it into his body, stunning him.

"Naruto, I'll open a window for you to attack with that... Why the hell is there 'shuriken' in its name if you need to hit them with it?" Yue asked, confused about that part.

"Nee-san, from what I could sense from it, the attack is naturally unstable, so he needs to hold it in order to maintain stability. It's a zero range attack, just like the rasengan," Tayuya stated.

Ino's eyes widened slightly. _'__S__he __must be__ a sensor like me, but she seems to be better at it.'_

"So you could tell from the unstable air currents? I thought that was just the jutsu manipulating the air around it," Yue said as she lifted her sword into a ready position. "You ready to kill this guy, Naruto?"

Naruto stared at the hanyō. "Why are you doing this? Aren't you on the same side?"

Yue smirked. "Sort of. Unlike this asshole and his partner, I don't kill for petty motivations like money or enjoyment of the kill. Those I kill deserve it because they are part of what makes this world unstable, filthy even. For the last year and a half, I've been killing nothing more than criminals disguised as decent men. Or they could be plain old murderers, rapists, traitors or slavers. Either way, I killed them because it was long overdue and Hell wanted their souls for the grinder."

"Don't listen to her, Naruto, she's probably just waiting for a good opportunity to capture you. I'll help you get this bastard," Choji said.

"I can do this alone. I have to do this myself or I'll never grow anymore than I already have," Naruto stated, stepping up.

"Sorry, but this guy is more dangerous than you think, Naruto. Using clones is good and all, but using shadow clones probably makes that jutsu fall apart quicker. You are getting help from me, whether you like it or not," Yue said as two clones formed next to her. "Get that jutsu up and we'll-"

Shred! Kakuzu looked even more hideous as more hair spilled out of his body, making him resemble some kind of hair anemone with long tentacles.

"-make the opening... See what we said, he's dangerous!" one of Yue's clones snapped, pointing at the man.

Naruto watched as Yue and her clones attacked Kakuzu. They managed to slice some of his hair away when the man noticed Naruto and his clones moving, so he jumped and attacked the original, only to realize the real one was behind him. He attempted to escape, but Yue's clones sliced the trees down so he couldn't pull himself away.

The jutsu struck and the force was unimaginable, wind whipping around as Kakuzu was shredded in a massive blast. Naruto had collapsed and watched as Kakuzu fell to the ground, lifeless.

"Hehe, got you," Naruto said.

Yue's eyes widened, shocked at what she had seen with her sharingan. "Millions...no, billions? Just how many wind blades are in that thing?" she asked herself. Suddenly, even her greatest reimyō buki seemed to pale in comparison to the supposedly half completed jutsu. If he ever finished it... She shivered at the terrible thought. She'd need to master her weapons faster, so she could have a chance of defending herself against that jutsu.

Kakuzu painfully lifted himself off the ground. "I...I won't let kids beat me," he gasped, blood dripping from his mouth and eyes.

A crystallized blood blade punched out his chest, right through his final heart. "Someone who fought the Shodai Hokage has no place left in this world anymore. Leave it to the newer generations, Kakuzu," Yue said.

"Ah, will I go to Hell now?" the man asked, wondering if he'd experience something new for once. Well, Naruto's jutsu certainly was new.

Yue closed her eyes, hearing the voices calling for Kakuzu's soul. "Yes..."

Kakuzu watched the blade pull back, then fell to the ground, finally dead.

Yue looked to the two Konoha teams as she pulled the ring off Kakuzu's finger. "Well then, I guess you want me now, huh?"

They all stood ready, Naruto healed up by Ino while Sakura and Sai brought Shikamaru back. "Yue, time for you to come home," Kakashi said.

Yue's chakra shot up to levels similar to that of ANBU captains, her sword actually vibrating as lightning coated it. "Do your best," Yue said, vanishing as lightning shot up her body.

"Careful, she's moving at high speed!" Shikamaru warned, right before Yue appeared before him, aiming to backhand him. He stepped back, but was shocked when he still got hit by something, throwing him back a good distance.

"As long as I can get my hand within three feet of you, I can still hit," Yue said, lightning crackling on her body to return her speed to normal. Yamato launched a tree at Yue, which she cut in two with her lightning coated blade. "Boring... Dodge this!" Yue shouted, swinging her blade hard at the ground. **"Mael****s****trom!"**

The teams were forced into dodging a chaotic wall of what appeared to be pure pressurized chakra blades that burst from where Yue's sword had scratched the ground, rushing at them like fangs of light. Sakura swung her fist down, bashing a few large stones in the way of some tightly grouped blades, then was tackled aside by Naruto as they effortlessly went through the stones.

"Sakura-chan! Only a strong doton would stop those blades!" Naruto shouted, carrying his teammate out of danger.

Yue frowned, deciding not to use the lost kenjutsu art again. She honestly expected someone to charge through the attacks with finesse and get to her, but it seems she was expecting too much from the battered shinobi before her. "Straight bukijutsu," she stated, rushing forward as she formed four clones.

Shikamaru and Sai were pushed back by one clone, Sakura and Ino got the next, Yamato and Kakashi were rushed by the third, Choji got one on his own by pure luck.

Naruto faced down the original. With her sword held in reverse grip, the two crashed knuckles together right away, their chakra repulsing on impact, black shooting back towards Yue while Naruto's bright blue flashed over him. Yue jammed her blade into the ground to stop sliding backward and jumped off of it to go after Naruto, starting up a rapid exchange of punches and kicks, Naruto barely keeping up with Yue's speed. Naruto ignored a few blows and drove a kick into Yue's stomach, pushing her back again, or he would have had she not fallen to the ground on all fours and used her chakra to stop her slide, then pounced back at him.

Kakashi watched Naruto in amazement, hardly believing that Naruto was keeping on his feet in spite of Yue going almost full force against him. While Yue wasn't the most powerful ninja he'd ever seen, she was no slouch when it came to ninjutsu or taijutsu, she was probably even the best sword fighter he had seen, not that many sword specialists crossed his path. Naruto's talents far exceeded that of his rank, possibly putting the teen at the level of fresh jōnin captains. Either way, he'd see if Tsunade could promote him without the need of the chūnin exam, since Naruto was beyond such a thing now.

Naruto landed another hard blow, but this time Yue got him as well. The hanyō grabbed her sword after halting the slide back, drawing it from the ground with the intent of using it.

Yamato managed to catch the clone off guard with his earth release, destroying it with stone spikes. "Kakashi-senpai, we need to get over there!" the man shouted, knowing Yue with a sword was far more dangerous than most jōnin could ever be.

"Right, we all will," Kakashi said, noticing that all the clones had been destroyed, freeing up all the assembled ninja.

"Ah, eight versus one. Kami hates me," Yue said, standing up fully to face her former allies. She had a very relaxed stance, her blade held lightly before her.

"Three versus eight. Kami hates us," Tayuya corrected, standing next to her adoptive sister.

"You two stand back, especially you, Mana," Yue commanded.

"Why not, Yue-sama? I can help!" Mana protested.

Yue looked at the girl hard, her sharingan locking with her teammate's brown eyes. "I'm not letting you ruin your life for me. Spare me the loyalty and listen to this one command," Yue said, surprisingly gently too, given the situation.

"They won't take you seriously without my help, Yue-sama," the girl said, then looked into Yue's eyes, "just a bit, I can-"

"NO!" Yue snapped, her sharingan blazing so bright that a lens-like flare became visible.

Mana flinched, fear and concern in her eyes. "Bu-but-"

Yue placed a hand on Mana's shoulder. "I already told you, you're life isn't going to be threatened because of me."

"Besides, Nee-san could just reveal _those_ and they'll take her seriously," Tayuya pointed out.

_'Those?'_ a few of the Konoha ninja thought, wondering what they were talking about.

The assembled ninja found out when Yue focused her chakra, a jutsu forming in her hands.

Kakashi's eyes widened slightly. "No, you couldn't have..."

Yue held her hands before her, one above the other, palms facing each other. Suspended between her two hands was an almost pitch black ball of chakra. **"Rasengan,"** she muttered.

"She mastered the rasengan?!" Sakura shouted, shocked.

"Took her almost a year and a half to get it down, but yeah, Nee-san mastered it. And unlike a certain someone, she doesn't need a clone to help her," Tayuya said, obvious pride in her voice.

Yue rushed forward, only for Naruto to rush forward with his own bright blue rasengan. They clashed, sparks spitting form the two grinding jutsu. Naruto flinched when some red chakra danced along the surface of Yue's rasengan, right before it started to chew into his own. He jumped back before his rasengan was torn apart.

"How did she beat Naruto's jutsu with the same one?" Ino asked nobody in particular.

Yue's rasengan had more and more red enter it. "Come now, you used something far more powerful against Kakuzu. Don't tell me that I get special treatment," the young woman said, her glowing sharingan locked on Naruto.

"I can't do that, it will kill you!" Naruto shouted.

Yue growled as lightning started to spark on her body. "I am with Akatsuki, Naruto. You are one day going to become my target, the target of all Akatsuki. They only have four more jinchūriki to capture, one of them being you."

"Before all of that, you're my friend," Naruto said.

"Mine too," Sakura said, standing next to her teammate.

"While I never did teach you anything, I would like to be known to you as 'sensei' someday," Kakashi said, standing behind his students.

Sai stepped up. "Team 7 is a picture that requires seven figures to be present, one of which is you. I'd like to paint it someday, to be part of that painting as well."

Ino took a few steps forward. "Listen up, Kazeneko Yue! You are coming back to Konoha so you can help Forehead and Naruto bring Sasuke-kun back!" she loudly ordered.

"Please come back so I have a bit more peace," Shikamaru said. Choji stepped up between his teammates, but didn't say anything at all.

Yue sighed, cricking the joints in her right hand. "Trump card two, ne?"

Kakashi watched as she formed lightning to her right hand, without the aid of hand seals or anything. What made matters worse was that he recognized this jutsu too. "Not the chidori, but the raikiri. Did you reverse engineer it through the chidori?"

Yue nodded. "Somewhat, but I got the final points a few months back when you had to use raikiri on that shunshin abusing missing-nin. Naruto needs something stronger than the rasengan to defeat these two legendary jutsu at once."

Naruto sighed as he formed two shadow clones, starting to form his fūton rasengan.

Yue moved forward, Kakashi moving forward to slow her with his ninken. They didn't last long, but it was enough for Yamato to lock Yue's raikiri up with thick wood, grounding the lightning out and pinning her in place. Shikamaru used the last of his chakra to stop Yue's movements long enough for Ino to finish the hand seals, to perform a certain jutsu for the first time in nearly three years.

"**Shintenshin no jutsu!"** Ino shouted as she took aim at Yue. The hanyō deactivated her sharingan and returned Ino's gaze, her eyes staring right back into Ino's pupils, which perfectly color matched her irides, right before Ino's body dropped.

"Ino?" Choji asked, looking from the collapsed girl he had caught to the one that slightly leaned forward, hiding her eyes with her bangs, after the jutsu completed.

A few moments of silence ruled, then Ino's body jolted and her eyes shot open. "Sh-She ejected me!" she gasped. Nobody aside from other Yamanaka, and Sakura, had rejected Ino's invasions so easily.

Yue opened her eyes, tearing her hand free of the root bindings as they started to rapidly rot from the inside. She quickly drove her rasengan into a group of ink lions, creating a sputtering stream of ink behind her as they were sucked into the orb and shredded apart. Sakura drove a punch into the ground, fracturing it, then struck again to launch a large boulder at Yue, which was destroyed when she swung a blade of pure lightning through it, cutting a path through the solid stone.

"**Fūton: Rasengan!"** Naruto shouted, having followed the rock to sneak up on Yue with no trouble.

Yue managed to get her own rasengan in the way, but Naruto's tore through her jutsu this time and slammed into her hand, which she coated with a raikiri at the last moment to lessen the effects by making his fūton waste power chewing up her raiton. Yue was still thrown back, blood arcing off her left arm as she went.

"Now to knock her out!" Naruto shouted. He rushed forward, everyone following him as well.

Tayuya jumped before her sister, holding her spear up to defend them both. _'I can't...I can't do anything for her! Even my curse seal...'_

The two Konoha teams were all thrown back, burns on their arms and torsos. When they landed, they were shocked to see a humanoid figure, coated in a black and red chakra cloak with two tails swaying behind it.

"What? That's a jinchūriki's..." Sakura muttered, wondering when one of them arrived, and why they were protecting Yue.

Yue stood up, holding her left shoulder as blood fell to the ground from her arm. "You just had to go and do that, didn't you, Mana?"

The cloak faded, fragments of a face mask falling to the ground.

"Or should I say..." Yue started as the jinchūriki was finally revealed.

Kakashi's eyes widened, his jaw falling open under his face mask.

"R-Rin...?"

The young woman, who indeed looked like Rin would have if she made it to her twenties, had the same gentle eyes, the same blue marks on her cheeks. It was either Rin or someone who looked like her.

"Took the words out of my mouth," Yue said, stumbling over to the woman everyone had believed dead for nearly a decade and a half. "Nohara Rin, jinchūriki to the Sanbi. Former chūnin of Konohagakure... and the woman who's death was faked years ago."

"Bu-but how?" Kakashi asked, completely confused.

"Kiri intended to use Rin as a 'jinchuriki bomb' to devestate Konoha. Unfortunately, Rin slowed you too much for the seal to last the rest of the trip, so they attacked you. The replaced her with a heavily brainwashed body double, which you killed, and took her away, unsealing the Sanbi so they could reuse it, but they didn't count on him breaking his tails off inside of her so that she'd survive the extraction process. When they tried to kill her, she used some of the blood from her wounds to use the summoning technique, taking her to the domain of the wolves. I encountered Rin when I ran into a few wolf demons. I saved her from becoming dinner," Yue explained, looking annoyed at having to explain so much.

"Yue-sama, let me heal your arm," Rin said, healing chakra glowing on her hands.

Yue shouldered past the young woman. "They won't let it happen. I only need one hand anyway," she boasted.

The wounded hanyō rushed forward, Naruto standing his ground while aiming a punch at her stomach so he could peacefully take her in.

Just before she could strike, Yue's curse seal flared up, burning her and making her vision treble as she stumbled slightly, just enough for Naruto to slam his fist into her stomach without her resisting.

As Yue collapsed, she grunted as pain burned through her torn up left arm, ice water running through her veins. _'I feel...sick. And why do I have the feeling that he is...dead? Ugh.'_

Naruto caught the girl before she fully fell, holding her up slightly. "We got you," he said, wary of Yue's left arm.

Yue glared at the teen, growling slightly. "Two terms."

"What are the terms?" Sakura asked, using medical ninjutsu alongside Ino and Rin to see the extent of Yue's injuries.

"Nohara Rin and Kazeneko Tayuya are granted asylum and protection within Konoha," Yue said, then looked to Kakashi, "and after Akatsuki are all dead, they join Konoha's ninja ranks, with no charges leveled against them. I'll bear them all."

Tayuya and Rin wanted to protest, but they wouldn't because Yue wasn't in any condition to argue, nor would she allow any argument.

"I'll have to talk to Tsunade-sama about it, but I think she'll agree to granting you all asylum," Kakashi said.

Yue sighed as she watched Yamato bring out the chakra restraints. "Trust me, only shut down forty percent of my chakra system at most. Just seal my limbs, eyes and neck. That's more than enough to...disable me," she said as she passed out from exhaustion and pain.

Kakashi and Yamato did restrain Yue, though they took her advice and only cut off the chakra flow in half her legs, her neck, eyes and her right arm, since her left was too badly injured to risk putting anything on it. Sakura and Ino determined that they'd need Tsunade and Shizune to assist them, since the damage to Yue's left arm was extensive and the only thing they could do was clean and wrap it in bandages.

Rin and Tayuya offered no resistance to shackles being placed on their arms and legs.

_[A few minutes later, elsewhere]_

Sasuke and Suigetsu made it out of the hideout, Suigetsu grumbling about lots of things. "Hey, mind if we stop somewhere first?" the light blue haired teen asked.

"Where?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, I want to visit Zabuza-senpai's grave, to get his sword," Suigetsu said, nervous of how his new 'boss' would react.

Sasuke merely stared at the boy evenly. "We can visit his grave, but you won't find his sword there."

Suigetsu grinned like a shark. "Don't worry, I'll find that bandit or whoever has it and carve 'em up with it!"

Sasuke shifted his top aside, revealing the scar on his side. "The one who has the sword gave me this wound. They're no simple bandit."

"Who then?" Suigetsu asked, annoyed.

Sasuke looked into the sky. "One of my former teammates from Konoha, Kazeneko Yue."

At that, Suigetsu's smile sank. "Wait, you mean that Kazeneko Yue, the one with the red sword?"

Sasuke nodded. Orochimaru's people were rumor spreading morons half the time, so he wasn't surprised that Suigetsu knew.

"Hehahaha! Oh, this could be fun!" Suigetsu exclaimed, imagining the fight, hacking her arms off with her own sword, cleaving her legs off one at a time, then cutting her head clean off with Kubikirihōchō! He'd feel a bit bad, since she was a cat and all, but the feel of his blade cutting through her limbs, through her neck!

"Don't go thinking she'll be a pushover. She nearly killed Orochimaru twice and only spared him on a whim the second time. Her power is beyond my own, her curse seal is more vicious and I'd put her kenjutsu decidedly above any I've ever seen before," Sasuke warned, "if it came down to it, she'd kill you."

Suigetsu frowned, looking around. "Damn, I hate using low quality blades. I need a special sword, or one of the Seven Mist Swords, but I'll need something if I'm going to fight her. Oh, don't worry about me, I'm sure I can kill her no problem."

Sasuke sighed, realizing that Suigetsu was a battle maniac who stopped hearing when he wanted to fight. After the water user calmed down, Sasuke would tell him of her twin swords, Yin and Yang, the girl's sharingan, as well as the strange fire blast and lightning arm she had used three years ago. If they were going to fight Yue, it'd have to be after the team was fully assembled, so they'd have a passable chance of killing her.

**A/N~**

Finished this chapter, sped up the timetable on Sasuke having his Orochimaru Flakes and gaining his serpent abilities. Next up is Yue's first time back home in three years.

….I predict mayhem.

By the way, I'm going to try to release a chapter of KTD every two or three weeks, since I recently finished writing chapter 42 and I'm only just releasing chapter 33.

**Preview~**

"I'll show it to you," Yue said, azure energy flowing around her and dancing in her irides, "all of the darkness within me."

**Omake~**

**A regular day in Akatsuki**

Deidara was finally finished with his latest work of art.

"Ooooooh! Deidara-senpai, that looks really good!" Tobi exclaimed, light flashing from his mask's eye hole as he excitedly bounced on his feet.

Deidara smirked. "Well, I decided that I have a few creations that look like me, maybe I should make a couple in your image. This would allow me to trick people into thinking you were around when you are really setting up mines or something along those lines."

"Tobi wonders if it acts like Tobi..." the masked man muttered to himself. He then noticed a very intricate looking dragon, a (few dozen) step(s) above Deidara's normal work quality. "OH! Tobi likes the dragon!"

"Careful! I haven't finished with that one yet," Deidara warned, "when I finally finish it, my old dragon will look like a child's drawing!"

"Deidara-senpai, it already does look like a child's drawing," Tobi pointed out.

Deidara growled. "TOBI! You won't insult my art anymore because I'm going to kill you!"

"By explosion?" Tobi asked as he started to run.

"BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA AND HANGING!" Deidara roared as he and Tobi ran along the outside edge of the room, a hammer in one of the blond's hand and a rope in the other.

Kisame grinned. "This never gets old."

Itachi took a page from his brother's book. "Hn..."

Crick!

"NYAAAA!" Yue whined a moment after Tobi stepped on her tail. "YOU'RE DEAD!" she roared, starting to swing a sword around and tossing lightning blasts at Tobi.

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "This is...much more interesting." Kisame grinned in agreement.

A lightning blast caught Tobi, sending the man into an electrically induced seizure that sort of resembled a crazed dance. With a scream of, "waaaaaaa!" he crashed into the table, decimating Deidara's improved clay dragon.

"TOBI!" Deidara screamed, tears of blood flowing from his eyes.

Tobi, being a good and smart boy, ran like no tomorrow.

Konan sighed to herself. _'Morons.'_

**Reimyō Buki Index-**

**Soyokaze Rakka ** [Fall Breeze] An unusual set of bladed greaves attached to the Yue's feet that grant her unique wind releases. Blades of wind, spears of wind, razor tornadoes and a hurricane in the form of a sword are the abilities of these blades. Due to their extremely light weight, the user is susceptible to being thrown off target. Grants the user the ability to 'kick off' wind that they gather to form a 'step in mid-air.'

**Jutsu Index-**

**Maelstrom:** Using chakra and a sword, one is able to 'project' their slashes great distances. Higher skill allows more 'blades' to be thrown with a single slash.

**Toppū kōtei** [Gust Step]: Using wind and her own leg strength, Yue is capable of running at high speed while using the pressure blasts to make direct pursuit impossible.

**Suihei funsai** [Horizontal Crusher]: Basically a regular Dynamic Entry, but with the speed and wind power of Fall Breeze, it has enough power to shatter iron with ease.

**Raiton: Faifu** [Lightning Release: Thunder Ax] – A technique based off Lightning Release False Darkness. Rather than a spear, Yue forms the lightning into an ax-like shape and drives it into the ground, then grinds it forward. Yue 'holds the handle' of the ax and moves it by swinging, pushing or pulling it.

**Responses-**

**thedarkpokemaster:** I only gave Hinata a spot light for one chapter because I am switching her big parts in the plot out in favor of Sakura. In other words, I gave her a chapter of awesome in exchange for various parts in the manga where she jumps forward and nearly dies.

And one last thing: HOT BLOOODED YOOOOOUUUUUUUUTTTTTHHHHHH! (from Guy and Lee to you. Tenten and Neji merely stood aside and face palmed)

**Rocketshippingfan:** I guess this chapter is even more damning for the poor hanyō, but at least she isn't completely on Akatsuki's side. At least now you have a good idea of why she is so damn strong, and you also know who her second lover is: Nohara Rin, pseudo-jinchuriki with powers from the Sanbi, Isobu!

**Rose Contestshipping fan88:** Naruto recognizes that Yue isn't away from the village entirely by choice, that she is actually willing to return to the village for something other than a poorly planned plot twist. Sadly, the thing that makes her want to return is also what is keeping her away from it: Yamanaka Ino. Wanting love but fearing rejection, the worst case of 'stuck between a rock and a hard place.'

**Sakura fan 55:** And I wonder if you are male or female right now... Either way, Ino is missing out and even Asuma knows it!

**NaruSaku fan 100:** Are you sure that Yue is really better than Sasuke? Do remember that Yue has a complete freaking alphabet of mental and emotional disorders.

**Super saiyan Sakura Haruno:** I found that the writer for Naruto didn't really show the character's growing properly, making it seem forced, unnatural at times. We could understand Naruto, who was horrible at everything and could only get better, and Sasuke, who had a no limits teacher and a person more than willing to dope him up on anything he could get his hands on, but characters such as Tenten and Hinata had virtually no story as to how they improved. That and I wanted to give Tenten a spot light chapter, because she is like a cute little panda that can bring a DEADLY HAIL OF STEEL BLADED DEATH UPON YOUR HEAD with a cute grin as a farewell gift.

As I pointed out last time, I don't think Naruto sees Hinata as anything more than a weird girl and a friend. A few of my stories actually have him explain that he wasn't saying it was because Hinata herself was beside him during the war, but because he had friends at his side. As for Sakura giving him CPR, I think it was just to show how much Naruto meant to her now, not that she loves him. That scene looked like nothing more than a concerned friend or doctor helping a badly injured person. More than the CPR, when the kyubi cloak left Sakura (which, I might add, should have happened the moment Kurama was extracted from Naruto, not when his heart stopped) her expression struck me as the one a woman would have when she is told that her lover was dead. Her panic after that seemed to express that even more so.

I have also seen CPR in numerous manga before, and not just to comical effect, so that's nothing new.

**Guest #1:** The tournament is something I decided upon because it could include Tenten and not the rest of her team, since none of them really use weapons. Bukijutsu without a hint of ninjutsu, aside from unsealing or sealing weapons. It also allowed us to see the trickiness that Anko bred into Yue and allowed us to see that Tenten isn't a character with barely any screen time. In case it didn't make sense, Nozomu and Mifune fought in the tournament, Nozomu winning and becoming champion, but later declined to attend, allowing Mifune to hold the title until he voluntarily gave it up.

Mifune doesn't know that Yue is related to Nozomu because they only have two common features: the orange eye and belonging to the same clan. I think I might make it so that Mifune recognizes Naruto as a possible child of Minato's based purely on appearance that the fact that Naruto's age and status as a jinchūriki would make him like all the others: blood related to the Kage/village leader of the time. And as it was pointed out in a much earlier chapter, Yue does know that Naruto is Minato's son.

The bench scene is not the source of Sakura's feelings for Sasuke, those rose up gradually since the formation of Team 7, growing from a simple crush Sakura had on Sasuke. The fact is that the only thing about Sasuke that can attract Sakura now is his appearance. His personality is shit, he doesn't care for anyone other than himself and his brother and he only does things because it interests him or he has a bottom line in the end, such as becoming Hokage. Her feelings for the Uchiha just further prove that she is emotionally immature and unwilling to notice that Naruto loves her so much that her singular pursuit of Sasuke is tearing him to ribbons, even after Sai threw it in her face. She started off Part II by saying that she wanted to stand beside Naruto as an equal and has done everything in her power to stand apart from him, and that's in spite of her silently promising to stand beside him as he becomes Hokage.

What the manga has built up between the two is a strong friendship and trust, which Sakura partially broke in Iron, nothing more. They are Jiraiya and Tsunade all over again, with Sakura stubbornly ignoring Naruto's love for her and Naruto acting like nothing is wrong as long as she is happy. The only difference with this batch of 'Sannin' is that Sasuke isn't going to go carving people up and start raving about wanting young boys.

**Sky Zephyrus:** I figured people would like my first forays into the 'behind the scenes' zone. It is actually experimentation for a few fics I'm planning on releasing later.

Yeah, the manga is basically making it out to be Sasuke wielding Naruto rather than making the 'Savior of the World' into his own hero. I don't see any problem with Madara being so powerful, since he lusted for power so much, but Sasuke becoming the way he is, especially his sudden heel-face turn really pissed me off in the worst way possible. Sadly, Sasuke will get the Rinnegan in this fic, only because he WILL need it for the final battles, but he won't be bossing Naruto around like he is now and he won't just stand around like a damn statue while Naruto has to run around all the time just to stay alive.

**Yuri-Hime-Chan:** Ah, I've seen Zero no Tsukaima. The black and white blades, Yin and Yang, are the new forms of the twin katana that Yue had back in Part I. Their story will be revealed later on, as well as why they can change so drastically. They have no relation to Archer's blades at all and are shaped more like Sai's tantō than anything else.

Yue returned the scroll because she truly has no right to hold onto it and she isn't power hungry. The scroll belongs to the Senju, not the Ruuko, and especially not a missing-nin Ruuko. That and none of the weapons contained inside of it interested her.


	34. Homecoming and a wild cat parade!

Chapter 34: Homecoming and a wild cat parade?!

**Disclaimer: I own... lots of things, but not Naruto!**

Yue woke up, or at least she woke up as any skilled jōnin would: stealthily.

Without opening her eyes, keeping her breathing even and keeping her pulse rate calm, Yue cast out with her ears, nose and sense of touch to discover where she was.

Touch relayed... Cloth. Cold metal. Cool air. Her clothes were gone and it was kinda cold.

Scent relayed... Ugh, it was the heavy scent of disinfectant. The place REEKED of it. She could also smell sweat, fear and, to a degree, sickness, though it was all muted by the stench of disinfectant. There was also a slight smell...what was it? Hmm. Ah, that's what it is. Yue was quite familiar with this particular smell: the stench of death.

Hearing...

"...BP..."

"I...over here..."

The sound of rhythmic beeping. Wheels rolling on the ground, one of dozens of wheels needing some oil. Glass tapping against more glass: vials of varying sizes.

"Clear the room!"

"Cl..." The sound of a very low level raiton going off followed that muffled fragment of speech.

Liquid, tiny drops, falling onto something similar to plastic.

"...gone..."

From all this evidence, Yue determined that she was in a hospital, probably an intensive care or emergency ward. Well, she assumed that she was there because of her arm, and the pain that was spreading from it. The damn thing hurt so much that, if it weren't her dominant arm and there were no medics in the world, she'd have cut it off herself to be rid of the pain when she got it. Didn't hurt so bad now, just throbbed in pain with the occasional jolt of pure agony. Her arm suddenly twitched against her will, but the medics didn't react to it, so it must have been happening a lot already.

_'Well, hopefully these guys will heal it. I'd have to rely on inferior skills I have with just my right arm,'_ Yue thought to herself.

"Why the hell are we healing a traitor?" a man asked. Judging by the sound of the footsteps coming into the room, he was accompanied by two women, one wearing heels by the sound of it.

"We heal everyone that comes in injured, that's how we do things in Konoha," one of the others, a woman said. By now, Yue assumed all three were medic-nin.

"That's how we treat HUMANS who are brought in to Konoha, whether they were captured or they are allied to us in some way. I don't see this...thing as an ally, just an abomination," the man said. Ah, neglect, how fitting for a man who lived in a village said to be overflowing with generosity.

"Either way, we are to heal her as per Tsunade-sama's orders. Do you want to disobey her?" the woman asked.

The man sighed. "No, but that wound is horrible, probably infected too, so don't expect her to keep that arm, or even live."

_'How rude! The wound was cleaned properly and I can tell, with my profound assassination skills, that the muscles are severed and I think a few nerves are too. Then again, maybe you're a quack who has so little skill that a paper cut is woefully challenging,'_ Yue thought, mentally rolling her eyes. She wanted to shove a tongue depressor through the quack's windpipe now.

"I've already examined it and Tsunade-sama will be here as soon as she's done examining Naruto-kun and that Akatsuki bastard's corpse," the female medic said, then the clicking of her heels told Yue that she was leaving. Yue hoped that the other nurse wasn't out to kill her.

Once the woman was gone, the man chuckled a bit. "Two hours til Tsunade-sama arrives, more than long enough for this bitch to have an accident."

_'Really? Female dogs are 'bitches,' female cats are called 'queens,' you idiot!'_ Yue thought. This guy probably failed most of his intelligence based courses at the academy. Why did people insist on calling her a bitch?

"Too bad that demon brat's wounds aren't bad enough that he has to be rendered unconscious," the other female medic stated, "then I could give him a little shot and put an end to the danger Konoha is suffering, waiting for the Kyūbi to take over."

_'Oh! She's a type of assassin as well, an 'angel of death' as they like to call themselves. Hmph. If you can't cut the person down and wait until they are unable to respond, like if they were unconscious like she thinks I am, then you are nothing more than a coward. Course, I've killed people who couldn't defend themselves, but they deserved it,'_ Yue thought, a bad taste in her mouth from relating herself to this cowardly woman.

"Let me finish with this IV, after the drip has run for about fifteen minutes, you inject that stuff into the line... Are you sure that's enough? I heard hanyō have some resistance to toxins," the man said, Yue feeling the telltale poke of a needle in her right arm. She didn't know if it was a standard drip or something concocted solely for her.

"With this amount, I could kill the current and previous Raikage with one dose," the woman said.

Yue, as one would guess, had been raising her immunities to various toxins, due to her being a prodigy of bukijutsu, particularly the art of killing people with weapons, but she was pretty sure that a shot of the garbage they used to euthanize people and animals (she didn't know if they used the same stuff) would kill her. She sure as hell knew that only the most pure alcohols had any effect on her, and that was minimal, so there was a good chance this woman was using something far more lethal this time.

Yue decided that these two were set for proper execution, since they mentioned the Kyūbi and Naruto being related to each other. Heh, Yue never killed an 'angel' before.

Now, where were the tongue depressors?

_[Ramen Ichiraku, fifty minutes later]_

Naruto groaned as he was fed ramen by his sensei. First Sakura offered to do it, but Sai wound up getting a fresh pair of chopsticks and tried to do it, then Kakashi showed up and took over.

It.

Was.

Humiliating!

...Naruto decided this was Kakashi's revenge for all the pranks and attempts to unmask him. He should warn Sakura that she was going to get hit with what he decided was Kakashi's 'mask wrath' sooner or later.

"Here you go, Teuchi-san! This should cover the old bill and a good deal more!" a girl suddenly said.

"Oh, thanks, Yu-Yue-san?" the old man asked, bewildered.

The four looked to the girl and it was indeed Yue, smiling brightly while looking back at them. "What?" she asked, tilting her head slightly.

"HOW DID YOU ESCAPE?!" Naruto shouted.

Yue staggered back a bit. "Eh? Eh? EH?! Escaped?!"

Team Kakashi merely blinked at the girl. Did she really get that badly hurt?

Yue put her still bandaged left hand on her chin. "That's odd... Well, she hasn't used me in almost three years, so a lot could have changed. Hey, what's the neko-baka up to lately?"

"Oh, you must be an 'intelligent' shadow clone," Kakashi said.

"Intelligent shadow clone?" Naruto asked.

The Yue clone smiled. "Sometimes, very rarely, a shadow clone will develop a personality that is distinct from the original and able to function without commands and is capable of tasks that are generally too daunting for a normal shadow clone. This is part of the reason shadow clones aren't used to complete complex tasks such as paperwork, because the basic ones are too stupid to make critical decisions while the intelligent ones aren't dumb enough to slave over a desk. Some ninja can learn to 'recall' these personalities and house them in shadow clones in order to perform complex tasks."

"That must be why Naruto's clones beat him up when we first did the bell test," Sakura said.

Naruto had tears running down his face. "Sakura-chan... Please don't bring that up..."

"Yue-sama has created a total of... seven intelligent shadow clones. That's not a huge amount, since someone in the past had a total of twenty two intelligent shadow clones. I highly doubt all of Naruto's shadow clones were intelligent, the others just followed it or them in confusion," the clone said.

"Wait, how is it that you can use your left arm?" Sakura asked, "just looking at the level of damage Yue suffered tells me that her arm shouldn't be able to move much at all without treatment and rehabilitation."

The clone looked at her left arm. "Well, I wasn't created to be part of that group anyway, so it doesn't matter if I blew my cover. To answer that question: unless it is a missing limb or something along those lines, shadow clones aren't hampered by the original's injuries."

Kakashi stood up. "That group? Shadow clone, what are you talking about."

The clone looked nervous. "Well, go to the village meeting ground and you'll know." The clone vanished in a puff of nearly black expended chakra.

Team Kakashi got up, paid for their meal and made their way to the area around the Hokage Tower.

Ten minutes later, they arrived to find a substantial crowd of shinobi and civilians. Everyone was wondering what was going on, a few civilians asking how a dead girl suddenly appeared before them and called them here.

"Shut the fuck up ladies!"

Everyone dropped silent and looked up, seeing Yue standing atop a building, nibbling on a senbon. "I'm Tokki, an intelligent shadow clone of Kazeneko Yue. Before ya ask, ALL of ya are panzy ass ladies!"

"How in Kami's name is it still alive?!" a civilian shouted.

Tokki looked at the man, her glare making him shrink back into the crowd. "Take it up with the Kage, since I ain't got time fer it! I was made for the simple purpose of startin' a game."

The crowd wondered about this 'game' that was being talked of.

"Yue escaped from the hospital before those two medics she killed the shit outta could spike her drip with poison. Now about the game. Yue made a total of forty-four clones upon making it out of the hospital. The objective, ladies, is fer you ta find the real Yue among the clones." Tokki took a break and nibbled on the senbon a bit. "Forty of them are actual shadow clones, four are a new type and one is the real deal."

"New type of shadow clones?" a ninja asked.

Tokki nodded a few times. "I ain't got time ta educate you on the new type, just know that one punch ain't gonna disperse us. By the way, if you hit me, I'm gonna fuck yer shit up so bad you ain't gonna wanna look at a woman for the resta ya pitiful, monk-like life that ya spend in ya mama's basement!" she threatened, her glare making even Yamato shiver.

"What's the catch?" Kakashi asked.

Tokki smiled, pointing at Kakashi. "Smart man, poor choice a readin, but a smart man! You are playin' on 'easy' right now. Yue'll create eleven shadow clones ever hour she isn't found, one of 'em being the new type, until the third hour, then yer fucked."

The crowd gulped, wondering what Yue would do.

"On the third hour, Yue'll have two hundred and eleven clones, if ya don't wreck any, runnin' around Konoha, getting into all sortsa mischief. One hour afta that, she'll be gone if she hasn't been caught," Tokki stated, then smiled, "I'll give ya all a hint: the real one can't use her left arm. Ya see a Yue using her left arm, she's a clone and a fucking dumbass!"

The crowd was now murmuring amongst itself.

"START SEARCHIN, BITCHES!" Tokki shouted, then shunshined away.

The crowd scattered. Team Kakashi took off as well, taking to the rooftops to find Yue.

_[Near the Academy]_

Konohamaru and his teammates dropped onto the roof of a building near the school, having found...

"Come on... I've become friends with cats in every nation, you can't possibly hate me," Yue said, holding her right hand out for the most notorious escape artist in Konoha's history: Mr. Kibbles.

The orange cat looked at his somewhat feline opposite, one ear up and one down, his body on full alert.

"Please don't use shadow clones or replacement. That would shave years off my life if you could use ninjutsu," Yue begged, carefully moving a bit closer, her hand still out and steady for the cat to sniff.

Mr, Kibbles carefully approached, sniffed Yue's hand, then walked a bit closer.

_'She's managed to tame the Beast?!'_ Moegi thought, remembering how both of her teammate's dealt with that little demon's claws all over their faces. Even the girl herself had to medicate a few scratches on her arms.

Mr. Kibbles suddenly pounced at Yue's face, clawing and hissing like the demon it had to be, making Yue burst into a cloud of expended chakra as the cat back flipped off her, landing perfectly in an offensive crouch.

"Damn! It was a clone!" Konohamaru shouted, scaring Mr. Kibbles into running away again.

WHACK!

"OW! Dammit Moegi!" Konohamaru yelped, holding his head, "you're never going to get a boyfriend if you keep-"

WHAP!

"OWWWW!"

_[Academy]_

Iruka sighed as he walked up to the classroom. He'd heard about Yue's 'game' and wanted to participate, but he was an academy instructor and had been ordered to return to the classroom.

"I've been gone for more than ten minutes, so the class is probably either gone or in complete chaos," the scarred ninja muttered as he opened the door.

"Greeting class, I am one of the many Kazeneko Yue clones that are currently running about town, though I am just a shadow clone," a Yue with lower half rim glasses sitting on the bridge of her nose stated, putting down the piece of chalk she had used to write the original's name on the board. "You may call me Yu-Sensei."

The class was quiet and in full attendance, probably because they had a battered missing-nin's clone in the room, teaching them something. Iruka stood in the doorway, mouth slightly agape.

Yu-Sensei took up the chalk again and started to write on the board some more. "Today's lesson is on this..." she said, writing 'missing-nin' on the board.

Iruka rushed at the girl and was surprised when she lifted up the meter stick and lightly slapped him across the face with it. While he was stunned from being hit, she pulled his chair out, knocked him off balance with the chair, slipped it under him and then kicked both of them so they slid almost all the way to the desks, facing the blackboard. All of a sudden, Iruka remembered being at the front of the class as punishment for his clowning around.

Yu-Sensei returned to the board and added more kanji, then dropped the chalk, slapping the meter stick under the lesson title. "I will tell you why you should NEVER become a missing-nin," she said, adjusting her glasses so they briefly reflected the overhead light.

_[Hokage's Office]_

"So Orochimaru's dead and we have a growing storm of Yue clones around the village..." Tsunade muttered, wishing she could have a day off.

Jiraiya shook his head a bit. "Wouldn't it be easy to deal with a horde of shadow clones?"

Tsunade looked at her teammate, thoroughly unamused. "That would be easy, except she's got a large number of them running about randomly, performing unusual acrobatics to get through obstacles and using the building structures to maneuver around quickly. She's making a mockery of the ANBU."

"Wait, she's using the building structures to move? As in gripping outcroppings to throw herself forward, diving through small gaps and flipping around or over bars?" Jiraiya asked. When Tsunade nodded, he whistled. "Not only was she wearing their outfit as 'Akane,' but she was trained by the Wind Dancers, huh? Damn, she's been doing good."

"Wind Dancers?" Tsunade asked, confused.

"The Wind Dancers are a semi-nomadic tribe that live in crevasses or large gallery caves and use a style of movement that allows them to traverse the hanging caves by way of using posts, natural ledges and even metal poles that they've added. They can't build bridges because the winds would tear any rope or wooden bridge apart and the hanging caves cannot handle a heavy stone or metal bridge," Yue explained, having just walked in, "they earned the name 'wind dancers' due to them seemingly dancing in the air, even in the face of powerful winds that whip about in their crevasses or the yawning depths of darkness in the caves. It is also quite formidable when you convert it into a fighting style, like they have. Hard to learn too."

"YOU?! Are you the original?" Tsunade asked, getting to her feet.

The Yue lifted her hands up in defense. "No! I opened the door with my left hand after all!"

"Why are you here then?" Jiraiya asked as Tsunade came around the desk.

"To tell you guys that Hebi-homo is dead. Before you ask how we know, the original felt it through her curse seal at the moment he died," the Yue clone stated, then vanished in a cloud of expended chakra.

Tsunade put fingers to her temples. "Jiraiya, let's go find her before I have Inoichi enter Shizune's mind so I know where she hid my sake."

Jiraiya nodded. "I'll check all the good hiding spots, as well as the hidden vantage points in the village."

"That's good, and with me holding onto these," Tsunade said, holding up a certain collapsible spy glass and green notepad, "you'll actually do something useful in Konoha." She quickly left to join the search.

Jiraiya blinked, then patted himself down. "When did she..."

_[Hokage mansion, an hour later]_

Team Kakashi and Tsunade had met up, then headed towards the one place many wouldn't look: the Hokage mansion. After opening the door, it was determined that a large number of people had already infiltrated the home.

Tsunade looked around and noticed that they had found the secret staircase and motioned for the others to follow her, but not before telling them that they never saw the passage and what was currently happening better be forgotten, though she would 'help' them forget if necessary.

After reaching the bottom of the stairs, they found the vault door to the Hokage's vault open, the seals that normally held it shut burnt out and the combination locks open. Tsunade pulled it all the way open and they were greeted with one hell of a sight.

"You, put it over there!" a Yue commanded, pointing to a clone, then a scroll rack.

"Haaaai," a clone droned, going over there and moving the scrolls about as it looked them over, seemingly messing things up. The clone put a pair of scrolls in seemingly random spots after all of that.

"Ah! You! Move it to that shelf!" the first Yue snapped, pointing at yet another clone, then a shelf.

This clone remained silent, moving some artifacts around, one of which was placed on the shelf.

Sai, seeing a missing-nin(?) using her clones to move things around in one of the most important places in Konoha, reacted as anyone would: he attacked.

Smack! The Yue tilted forward from the punch to the back of the head.

Ting!

Everyone looked down, seeing a senbon on the ground. Sai paled, noticeably paled, as he realized what he had just done.

The clone tossed a senbon up from waist level, catching it in her teeth as she turned to face the teen with a wicked grin. "Ya really want ta experience Hell, dontcha?"

"I-It was a m-mi-mistake," Sai stuttered.

"Don't matter, yer gonna pay," Tokki stated, advancing on Sai.

A young man's wail was heard over most of Konoha.

_[Hot springs]_

"Wow..." a Yue clone muttered, staring through a hole in the fence as a thin ribbon of blood started to run from her nose, "that redhead looks like she needs some help with that load on her chest, and I happen to be ready, willing and able at any time she wants! And those thighs! HNNNG! That brunette isn't bad either, since those long, luscious legs go up for a long time and make a very nice ass of themselves. Wonder how she looks from the front. That black haired woman, I want to be that towel so badly! I wish I could henge into water. Or maybe that rock, so I can feel that blonde's ass on me!"

Jiraiya stared at the girl, which was obviously a shadow clone. "Normal or special?" he asked.

The shadow clone jumped slightly, then looked at the white haired man. "Oh, it's just Jiraiya-sama, author of my favorite book series. I'm called 'Yuriko' by the others, for obvious reason," she greeted.

Jiraiya placed a hand to his chin, a proud smile on his face. "Oh, so you're a fan?"

"Heh heh! The original is too, though she prefers your first book ever. I prefer the Icha Icha series, and peeping on girls," Yuriko said as she sat on a rock, "I keep telling Yue-sama to make a lesbian harem, but she really loves Ino-chan a lot." The clone obviously did too, because she blushed and took on the persona of a nervous girl in love, spiraling some of her long hair around her fingers.

Jiraiya pulled out his little backup notebook, not bothering to make a move to the fence. "Mind telling me about her? I've always wanted to write another tale of the utterly gutsy ninja. I'm thinking this one will be about two idiot ninja, a hero and a heroine. Best friends to the end, so to speak. A pair of kindred souls, sort of like a certain blond and kitty we both know."

Yuriko smiled and started to tell the tale of Kazeneko Yue, a lesbian who wouldn't make a harem of hot ladies.

That was actually how Yuriko started telling the story too.

For the next two hours, Konoha dealt with numerous shadow clones, as well as a few of the more solid variety, but the real Yue proved to be impossible to find. Even when Urami, Kai and Hyou joined in, she still proved to be cat-like and remained hidden.

Yue didn't directly observe anything, getting snippets of information from her dispelled clones filtered into her memories through her demonic half.

_**'Are you sure you really want to find that thing?'**_ Yue's demonic half asked.

Yue opened her eyes, looking at the sky. _'I'm like Lee when it comes to some of my power: I can't bring too much of it out, nowhere near at peak levels. If I find that artifact, and I am compatible with it, I'll be able to fully release all my power, which I'll need if I am to complete my goals.'_

The demon within her sighed as she filtered more memories. Without her, Yue couldn't even make eighty clones without passing out afterward. By having 'Demon Yue' filter the memories first, it more than doubled Yue's shadow clone 'load,' though she'd still suffer weakness for a few moments after a lot of them were dispelled at once. Being part demon came in handy quite a bit when it came to recovering from or resisting fatigue.

_'You really think I should just walk down there and turn myself in, abandon my plans and give up on that sword, don't you?'_ Yue asked.

Demon Yue remained silent for a moment. _**'Honestly, I do. A part of you wants to as well.'**_

_'With the amount of people who hated me before, in addition to the ones who believe all traitors deserve death, I won't last ten minutes. If I hadn't woken up when I did, I'd be dead now,'_ Yue pointed out.

Demon Yue saw the memories in question, or rather heard them and had no choice but to silently agree. She and Yue were bound together, but separate at the same time. Each had their own thoughts, their own memories and their own opinions. This was a double edged sword for them, since Demon Yue could sense outside of Yue's body and was also able to see what the hanyō saw, allowing her to alert Yue to things she might be missing. On the bad side, the slight conflict between them sometimes caused a slight disjoint in various things, affecting Yue's perceptions or thought speeds, creating what could be deadly lag if she were in a high speed fight where there was no room for error. All in all, it was like being a jinchūriki to a bijū with no chakra. Yue already knew that hanyō were the 'blueprints' for jinchūriki, due to certain events drastically increasing her knowledge and experience with various situations.

_**'Ten minutes until the big show. And I think one of the clone groups in closing in on the objective,'**_ Demon Yue stated, going over various memories as clones were dispelled.

Yue stood up, stretching slightly. "Time to make an entrance then, since I'm down to sixteen clones," she said, the silver ring on her cat ear glowing brightly.

_[Konoha, same time]_

For lack of a better term, thirteen of Yue's sixteen clones were currently ringed on all sides by what could only be called a lynch mob. Heck, some of the people actually had pitchforks and nooses! Wait, was that a torch, in broad daylight?! How cliché could you be?

"Finally got you, demon cat," a chūnin stated, brandishing a katana.

One of the clones sweat dropped. "You know your stance sucks, and you're gripping it all wrong. That and...you're katana's handle is starting to rust because you let some blood get under the binding," she pointed out.

Slash!

Now there were twelve cornered clones. "Good enough to cut you all down," the man said, holding the sword like it was a stick.

Four ANBU, Team Kakashi, Team Asuma, Tsunade and Shizune shunshined in around the clones, every last one of them armed and ready to respond to force in kind.

"Stand down, all of you!" Tsunade yelled. When the crowd listened, the ninja around her lowered their weapons as well. "We are capturing her, not killing her," the blonde stated. This pissed the crowd off again.

"Why are we taking in more demons?!"

"That thing is a monster and a murderer!"

"Kill the demons!"

"Quiet!" the Yue clones shouted as one.

"You idiots... NONE of you have seen a true demon in sixteen years!" a clone snapped.

"Fools, every last one of you," another said.

That got the crowd riled up again, resulting in weapons being lifted into ready position, for a mob anyway.

"I said stand down! NOW!" Tsunade roared. She grew even more furious when the mob didn't listen.

"You might want to listen, since you people have nothing but clones over there."

Everyone turned to see Yue on a rooftop, back in her clothes and Akatsuki long jacket, sitting atop an enormous silver furred wolf. She nodded, her clones all vanishing aside from the three that weren't present.

"That the real one, or just another illusion?" a civilian asked.

A ninja turned to the woman. "Shadow clones aren't illusions, they're like real, solid bodies."

The wolf leapt off the roof, landing in the dead center of the Hokage's assembled shinobi. Yue dismounted the wolf like it was a horse, pet the canine's head, then dismissed it. "Center of the village: check. Mob of angry people: check. Hokage present to witness the execution: check. Shinobi and civilian witnesses: check a couple of times," Yue stated.

"There won't be any executions today," Naruto said.

Yue shrugged. "That's not what the people want."

The people were a bit worried, mainly because Yue was a powerful missing-nin. Their earlier bravado gone due to how confident she seemed, even when the Hokage and ANBU were before her. Now that the civilians thought about it, how in the Shodai's name were they expecting to beat a ninja in the first place? That was like trying to put out a large forest fire by peeing on it! It was at this moment that the civilians of Konoha realized that they were weak.

"Kazeneko Yue, you are going to return to the hospital and when you are well enough, we will be interrogating you for information on Akatsuki," Bear stated.

Yue looked at the large man with his brushed back, receding black hair. "Ah, the same one who woke me up during Orochimaru's invasion... Hokage's personal guard, eh? Quite a step up in the world."

A cat masked ANBU drew her sword, pointing it at Yue. "Come quietly. We'll make sure the medics heal your arm this time, at sword point if need be."

"Hmm, I wonder if you can fix the damage to my spine and chakra network as well while you're at it," Yue mused.

Tsunade was now curious. "Spine and chakra network damage? Explain."

Yue looked at the sky. "It seems Orochimaru built a fail safe into the seals on me and Tayuya, one that seems to activate when we aren't close to him. Our spinal cords and the chakra networks along it suffer a slow, eventual type of decay. It won't cripple us, but it will steadily lower our usable chakra levels and how long we can function pain free without proper treatment. Even Akatsuki can't fix it, just push it back and give us three week intervals of useful movement time, then we need four days of special treatment that reverses the damage as much as possible. Oh, while I'm talking about it, Tayuya is reaching her limit, so do heal her as soon as possible."

"Yue, you are unarmed, weakened, outclassed and heavily outnumbered," Yamato said, "give up now."

Yue cricked her neck a bit, regarding the man with her right eye only. "Outclassed? I seem to remember my clones making the ANBU look like rank amateurs, twice, and they don't have my full ability. If my memory serves correctly, I also defeated the infamous Eleven Leaves and their team leaders. What makes you think I can't escape again?"

"I'm here," Tsunade said.

Yue chuckled. "Why would I fear you? I respect you, but fear you, not a chance." The moment Tsunade moved to strike, Yue ran at the people and jumped off a civilian's face, soaring over the crowd and sticking to a wall with her chakra, though she slipped a bit at first. "Got to be faster than that, Tsunade-sama!" The hanyō ran up the wall, taking to the rooftops to lead the ninja on a grand chase.

Tsunade joined in as well, cursing the 'wind dancers' as Yue moved with a fluid grace the far exceeded that of a shinobi, twisting around corners so tightly you'd think she could control inertia at will. More than once, a shinobi wound up running into a wall around a blind corner, one Yue had shot up due to her loving rooftop travel more than any shinobi should. She actually managed to unmask an ANBU by sliding through a small open window while the female ANBU was hot on her heels, resulting in the woman shattering her mask, and nose, when she impacted the wall at a full sprint. As an unusual bonus, Yue interrupted four showers, eight couples about to or already doing the horizontal tango and destroyed a grand total of thirty one potted plants, most of which fell long after she passed by them.

Yue eventually made it to a series rooftop, a long stretch with the three roofs being lined up almost perfectly with space small enough for her roof-to-roof hops. She would lose all the shinobi on her tail, then get what she came here for and get going while the ninja were too busy trying to figure out where she was.

Well, that was the plan anyway.

Yue's foot hit something, a tripwire that didn't have any give, and she catapulted forward, falling over the edge of the first building and right into a net that snapped shut as she fell. She looked around, confused at what happened, right until her eyes met two sets that she knew too well. She noted that she was upside down in the net.

"Anko-sensei...Lina..." she muttered.

Anko smirked. "Naughty, naughty koneko-chan. Just because the door was open, that didn't mean you could run outside and leave me alone. I missed my pretty little kitty."

Lina adjusted her glasses, light glinting off the lenses. "Yue, now that I know the truth about our last mission as a team, you and me have to talk about you moronically accepting punishment for something you didn't do."

"You know, Anko-sensei, I brought a pair of people that will be going to T&I. Don't go too rough on either one of them. Tayuya's likely to start mouthing off and Rin might just cry, and you don't want her to cry, especially with her having some chakra from the Sanbi still inside her. That and it will break even Ibiki's heart to see her cry," Yue said.

Lina drew her favorite fūma shuriken, still closed. "I'm going to free you now, don't do anything stupid, so don't do anything at all."

Yue smirked as the net snapped before Lina even got to it, the hanyō flipping and landing on her feet with ease, though she winced because she put her left hand down to absorb some of the shock. "Oops, guess I did something dumb again," Yue taunted, right before flipping back and falling over the edge of the building, right onto a lower rooftop.

Anko's eye twitched. "Oh it is so on now, kitty cat! I GOT A CHAINED COLLAR WITH YOUR NAME ON IT, AND I'M NOT AFRAID TO USE IT!" she declared, jumping after her student with a crazed glint in her eyes and, disturbingly enough, the aforementioned collar and chain.

"Nutcases, the both of them," Lina said with a heavy sigh. After a moment, she shrugged and whipped her glasses off. "Can't say I'm any better. KAZENEKO! GET BACK HERE!" she roared, giving chase as well.

Now, Yue loved a chase as much as the next cat, but that was when she was the hunter, not the prey. Add to it that, for the last hour or so, she'd had most of Konoha literally on her tail kind of annoyed her. She was a bit touched that a vast majority of the people didn't seem to want her dead, quite a few actually asking her to return to Konoha properly. Still, she wanted out of the village and this was all stopping her from..!?

Yue stopped in the middle of a decent sized open space, and she stopped dead too, causing more than a few people to stop so suddenly that they careened forward with some comical results. Poor Ebisu crashed into a woman and somehow wound up with his face shoved into her chest, resulting in a strong slap across his face.

Urami came close to the hanyō with his son in tow. "Yue, what are you doing?" he asked. Stopping at this point was utterly foolish, and Yue wasn't remotely this stupid.

None of them saw, but when Yue looked up, a red flash flickered up her pupils, a wild grin on her face. "They found it," she said, mostly to herself.

Tsunade finally caught up, running to Yue with her fist cocked back. "I'll make sure you stay, the same way Jiraiya does when I want him to!" she shouted.

Yue mumbled something that only Tsunade heard. To everyone's shock, Tsunade stopped, her eyes wide with dread realization. She quickly looked about, seemingly scared of something that couldn't be seen.

"What? Why is Hokage-sama stopping?" a jōnin asked.

"Did the demon cat do something to her?" a civilian wondered.

Yue turned to Tsunade, a cold smirk on her face. "Like it Tsunade-sama, the reason why I don't fear you?" she asked, her right eye reflecting a scared Tsunade.

Many people wondered how this cat could boast about such things, not understanding why their Hokage kept stepping back, a look of horror on her face. Could Yue have used demon magic on Tsunade?

Yue laughed. "Yes, that's right Tsunade-sama. Welcome to your new weakness, your fragile cage of glass: Konoha!"

Now that caught a few people's curiosity, but Jiraiya and Kakashi understood it within moments. "She can't use her strength in Konoha because she'd just destroy it," Kakashi stated, seeing how Yue had employed her lessons from Anko and used the terrain itself against the Hokage.

"Not just Tsunade-sama, all of you are restricted because your strongest jutsu, the ones you'd need to defeat me would just tear the village apart!" Yue shouted.

"You forgot some people."

Yue turned to see Naruto, Sai and Jiraiya standing there, the cat masked ANBU, Bear and Shizune joining them. Even Shikamaru moved closer, same with Hinata and Shino.

"Che! Forgot about you guys...not. Rasengan will still cause lots of damage to the surrounding area, even if I'm hit dead on. You're arm is also unusable, like mine," Yue stated, then looked to the others, "I won against you guys once each, what makes this time any different?"

"You defeated us each once before, maybe even twice, but you never defeated ALL of us when we were together," Naruto said.

Sakura joined her team. "I'm not all about Tsunade-sama's enhanced striking power, I have my own unique talents as well."

Yue growled. She had tried to reactivate her sharingan a few times, but her body was overreacting to the chakra sealing braces that had been put onto her, probably from wearing them for almost three years straight at one point in her life. Damn chakra system was a submissive bitch that bent over and took it without complaint when Yue got sealed up a bit. She'd need time, time she didn't have, to force her system to work again to the point that she could use something other than shadow and umbra clones. The damn sealing didn't work either, her body just reacted as if it did! Good thing she could still wall and water walk, though both were a bit shaky at times.

But if her clone was fast enough... she wouldn't need to worry so much. All she needed to do was keep stalling.

Yue chuckled a bit. "Naruto, haven't you ever wondered how I've gotten this strong, how I've grown so much more intelligent or how I've gained and made so many jutsu since you last saw me?"

"It doesn't matter," Naruto answered. He was interested, but he was more impatient than anything.

"Shadow clones," Yue said, "lots and lots of shadow clones." Oh boy, the headaches and passing out were a pain in the ass. Not to mention dealing with whiny clones who wanted to read Icha Icha rather than history books and such. Yue now knew Iruka's pain.

Naruto was stunned, mainly because Kakashi had said that he was the only person who could use that style of training. Then he remembered how Kakashi said that Naruto was PROBABLY the only one who could do it. Since Yue could use mass shadow clone as well, and had a large reserve of potent chakra, it meant she could do the training as well. "How long?" he asked.

"A year and a half, roughly," Yue answered, "still ongoing, though not right now."

Naruto made a mental note to use shadow clone training later on to learn more ninjutsu, as well as force some of his clones to go read up on stuff he should know by now. He was lacking in many areas, and with his improved knowledge on what was expected of Hokage, he needed to fill the gaps.

Sakura started to slink forward, looking for an opening to employ a few senbon she had treated so that, if Naruto started showing signs of 'going Kyūbi' again, she could knock him out and prevent the massive damage to his body that occurred when he changed. It wasn't a pain to heal him, it actually made her feel good to be helpful to her teammate, but she knew that it was agonizing to Naruto and it shortened his life span every time.

Yue, stripped of most of her jutsu due to her chakra system being a spineless masochist, used what little power she did have to summon her usual weapons to her, Yin and Yang appearing at her sides and Aka Kubikirihōchō appearing before her, floating for a moment before she caught the handle with her right hand, twirling the blade into a ready position.

Kakashi's eye widened. "How did you do that? Yamato sealed them away in a secure scroll."

Urami sighed. "You cannot take weapons from a Ruuko, you'd have better luck stealing the light of the Sun."

"Urami's right. Ruuko are disabled as ninja, but only in the respects of regular genjutsu and an almost complete inability to use space-time ninjutsu," Yue stated. Yeah, mystery solved. Yue couldn't summon because the Ruuko were incapable of using summons. She could only use obscure space-time ninjutsu, the types that, like a Ruuko's particular talent, warped space.

"You summoned a giant wolf, and those armored ghosts," a ninja pointed out, having read the bingo book entry on the hanyō.

Yue's cat ear, the one with the ring on it, twitched as the silver adornment started to glow. A brown wolf appeared next to her, one the size of Inuzuka Tsume's Kuromaru. "With the ring in my ear, I can summon wolves," Yue said as the gold ring on her tail started to glow. A two tailed cat the size of Akamaru appeared on her other side. "And with the ring on my tail, I can summon nekomata and cats. I got around the disability by using objects that absorb my chakra and summon for me. Those knights aren't summoned using chakra, but my yōki. I bound a few to Tayuya, who uses the chakra of her curse seal to summon them," she explained as she dismissed the animals she called on.

"Then how did you summon your weapons? That's space-time ninjutsu!" a well informed, but still Naruto-is-the-Kyūbi biased civilian shouted.

"Dimensional ninjutsu," Yue answered, "space and time are easily accessible by anyone. Merely living allows one to interact with time, travel of any kind is a way one can traverse space. Dimensional ninjutsu is something that, so far, only the Ruuko are known to manipulate, which they do through their usage of onmyōton and sheer talent with weapons. I can bend, rip or even shred dimension apart for various effects, though it is only a temporary distortion."

Before anyone could comment, and much to Tenten's delight, hundreds of weapons appeared as the air became warped, the blades skewered into buildings, piercing trees, there was even a dagger stuck through a poster on the wall and a bow with a quiver of arrows hung off a sign. If Tenten were more like Hinata, she would have had an excitement induced heart attack from the sight.

"Four hundred and nine weapons. I'm aiming for a specific five hundred and two, plus or minus a few interesting pieces I've seen lately," Yue stated as the weapons vanished, the air about them warping as they faded away, "nobody can pierce my personal dimension, not even you Kakashi. I can't have my weapons taken because they are linked to me and my dimension by blood. If you seal them away, I'll just circumvent the seals and reclaim my blades."

Some of the assembled ninja decided that Yue was too powerful of a hanyō to continue existing. Even if she had been part of their village all along, they would assume that, just like Naruto, she would turn her powers against the village and its people or just lose herself to her own powers sooner or later. She was a dangerous threat to everyone and needed to be destroyed.

Yue smirked. "Finally, took them long enough."

Before anyone could ask what she meant, a wrapped object slammed into the ground before her, a long wrapped object. Well, wrapped isn't the right term, chained up over bandages would be more appropriate. Yue created a pair of shadow clones as a means of temporary defense.

Urami and Kai both stared at it wide eyed. "How did she get into the vault?" the younger demanded.

"Don't let her take that thing!" Urami shouted to some people, then he started to move forward himself, his son beside him. "She's the clan head, a direct descendant of the first Ruuko! Her blood could easily undo all the seals!"

Yue had already dripped some of the blood from her still wounded left arm onto the chains and fabric, her two new clones stopping the charging ninja just long enough for Yue to finish unsealing her objective: a strange black sword.

The sword was single edged with a silver groove and looked to be quite heavy in spite of being only about three feet in length, making it quite a long sword for someone of Yue's stature. The handle had a guard of some sort, or at least it looked like one. A...tail-like thing hung from the end of the handle, extending a good three feet in total length. The 'tail' looked sort of like a scorpion's would. It even bent and swayed rather than remaining rigid.

Yue took the handle of the sword and the tail whipped around her arm, the end of it extending a wicked looking stinger, which was slammed into her arm, drawing some of Yue's blood into it. The silver groove turned red, almost like Yue's blood was filling it. After a moment, the blade's tail unstuck her, calmly wrapping around her right arm. A watery red flame started to burn off Yue's body, right as she screamed.

Four of Yue's five clones, which were close enough to be affected, were destroyed instantly with Yue's first scream, surprising Iruka and a few ninja who had managed to corner Tokki. (Yuriko and Jiraiya were busy peeking on the ladies in the hot springs out of Yue's range) Several ninja, most of them the ones who wanted her dead no matter what, rushed forward with the intent of ending her.

They never did kill her.

Yue, still wrapped in that energy, tore the new sword from the ground and swung it once, forcing the ninja into stopping so they didn't get cut apart by the ensuing whirling blades of red energy. Of course, the sudden stop caused one man's katana to slice a woman's back slightly when he ran into her.

Yue laughed a bit. "So...this is what its like. My true power..."

Urami himself went forward as the red energy blades faded, his sword held at the ready. "Damn, she's already become the host for the sword. I hate doing this, but the sword cannot have a living body under its sway."

The sword was lifted before Yue's face, dark blue flame trying to flow into Yue's arm, but her red energy shoved it back and invaded the weapon, smothering the blue flames. "Hmm. No, I'm the master here..._Tyrfing_."

With that, the sword seemed to calm down, Yue's red power growing from a weak glow to a steady blaze as it crawled over the sword.

"Ahh. It's been almost seventeen years, Konoha, seventeen years since you've seen a real demon," she said, her empowered nails glowing like lava.

Urami now knew what the power was, though he couldn't believe it. "She's unsealed her yōki, completely unsealed it. She...tamed the cursed sword Tyrfing too." That had never happened before, ever.

Yue felt something else too, her chakra was finally returning to normal. She stopped emitting yōki, satisfied that she had obtained her full, unrestricted power. She felt like a part of her had been liberated from some kind of prison and she felt whole for the first time ever. Well, there was still one hole that would never be filled, but Yue had long decided to ignore it. There was no way Ino would look at her like that. Besides, Yue probably wouldn't be alive this time next year.

Seeing the missing-nin relax, a number of 'civilians' suddenly drew kunai and shuriken, flinging them with incredible accuracy at Yue. _'Danzō-sama, one threat will die here today,'_ the older Ne ANBU thought as the weapons started arcing downward from the air.

Yue was going to deflect the weapons with her yōki or her newest sword, but something stopped her.

"Yue-san!" the small, brown haired girl called out, wrapping her arms around Yue's hips. She looked up, tears under her pearl eyes. "Why?"

Yue was stunned, shocked. She didn't know what would happen to the girl if she unleashed her powers. All she could do was drop to her knees, wrapping the girl in her arms in hopes that it would...

_'What the hell am I thinking? I can't protect anyone, I'm a murderer! I can't do anything right other than kill,'_ Yue thought as she held the girl tightly. She just wished she could protect the young girl she trained a little.

The Ne ANBU winced a bit, but figured Hyūga Hanabi would be viewed as a hero of sorts, since Yue couldn't run anymore.

Clang! Clatter!

Everyone's eyes widened in shock as nearly all the weapons hit the ground, very few finding their mark, and none hitting Hanabi.

Yue glared forward at the men and women, the disguised Ne ANBU, her mangekyō sharingan blazing with rage as dried blood cracking off her face from under both her eyes.

"**Susanoo..."**

**A/N~**

How's that for an ending? Yue has now unlocked the full power of the mangekyō sharingan, or at least she's on the path to completing it. Just in case my description wasn't that good, the Wind Dancers are a tribe of freerunners who live in natural hanging caves in crevasses, aka surface cracks, and large caves that are called 'galleries.' Their mobility is considered greater than a shinobi's and the movement style that shinobi use is based off a really old, watered down version of Wind Dancing.

As usual, I'll look this over later for errors and repost it if there are any. Also, I apologize in advance for my last response, I'm still pissed about how the latest chapter of 'Sasuke' went.

**Jutsu Index-**

**Anbu**** Bunshin no Jutsu** [Umbra Clone Jutsu]: A more solid variation of the regular kage bunshin. An umbra clone can take many more hits than a regular shadow clone, even surviving a fatal blow. This is a fully combat ready version of the regular shadow clone jutsu while maintaining the original experience piling ability. The drawback is that the chakra demand for one umbra clone is the same as five shadow clones that last up to an hour, making it unusable by people without very large chakra reserves. Some could call this a 'perfected version' of the kage bunshin no jutsu.

**Clone Intro-**

Name: Tokki (Boss)

Occupation: Leader of unintelligent shadow clones (self appointed), torture and interrogation expert

Race: Umbra Clone (used to be shadow clone)

Distinctive features: Talks like a delinquent, most of the time. Always chewing on senbon.

Personality: Plain and simple, Boss is the leader of a gang, or at least acts like one. She has a very violent streak in her and is extremely impatient. It is noted that she is similar to Anko when the woman hits super sadist mode, but Boss is worse due to her unusual creativity.

Likes: Being #1 (or #2 if Yue is around)

Dislikes: Insubordination, Yu-Sensei

Appearance: Same as Yue, but sometimes wears her jacket on her shoulders and is never seen without her trademark senbon.

Special skill: Senbon expert, torture expert

Her greatest achievement: Once came up with a (hopefully) indescribable torture method for men that involved cotton socks, ninja wire, a lit candle, three wolves, three boxes, three shadow clones and meat

Name: Yuriko

Occupation: Scout?

Race: Umbra Clone (used to be shadow clone)

Distinctive features: A female version of Jiraiya with Yue's appearance and actual decency (to a limited degree)

Personality: Despite urging her original to make a harem of hot women, Yuriko herself is very passive and normally contents herself with peeping. Very rarely, her 'switch is flipped' and she becomes a depraved pervert of almost unequaled caliber. (Jiraiya is still the king of ero) She is an avid fan of Jiraiya's Icha Icha series and, in spite of sharing the memories of the original, likes to read the books herself.

Likes: Women, Yuri, Jiraiya's books

Dislikes: Yaoi, Censorship laws

Appearance: The exact same as Yue

Special skill: Almost impossible to detect (gained from peeping on kunoichi) Knows a dead language (aka otaku)

Her greatest achievement: Peeped on Tsume, Hana, Konan, Hinata and Kurenai without being detected. Chose not to peep on Ino.

Name: Yu-Sensei

Occupation: Scout, tactician

Race: Umbra Clone (used to be shadow clone)

Distinctive features: Her glasses and her hair is well brushed, though she has a few bits of hair that don't yield to her brush

Personality: Yu-Sensei is the total opposite of Yue. She is calm, even tempered and willing to stay still for extended periods of time when it doesn't involve missions/jutsu. Yu-Sensei rather enjoys teaching people, a possible reflection of Yue's latent teaching talents and enjoyment of said act. She, unlike Yue, prefers the mental arts of shinobi as opposed to physical shinobi arts.

Likes: Learning, teaching, cleanliness

Dislikes: Tokki, dirt, running out of chalk, humidity (due to her glasses),

Appearance: A neater version of Yue with lower half rim reading glasses, meaning the rim in on the lower half of the lenses. She deplores getting dirty and constantly fights with her idiot hair.

Special skill: Keeping students' attention, "Chalkjutsu" (throws chakra like it is a kunai/shuriken)

Her greatest achievement: Lectured Itachi once

**Predictions-**

This is a new section that I think I'll only do once or twice, since the Naruto series is coming to a close. I'll put down my predictions on what will happen and we'll all see if I'm right.

BTW, I predicted that Kaguya would reappear (didn't think she'd take over Madara though) and I also predicted Sasuke, yet again, bossing Naruto around. I also predicted Sasuke getting an ultimate Susanoo that was stronger/more versatile than Madara's.

Prediction: Sasuke will continue to do things that are relatively interesting, like summoning in Kaguya's dimension, all while people are in awe over it.

Prediction: Naruto will do things that are a case of 'WTF?!' but it will be overshadowed by Sasuke's awesome use of jutsu he's had for volumes upon volumes. (sort of like the most recent chapter)

Prediction: Kaguya is going to pimp slap Sasuke away, either with his Susanoo or through it.

**Responses-**

**Professional Ninja:** Here you go.

**Guest:** Here's some more.

**Thedarkpokemaster:** Epic fights becomes an epic chase. Obito is obviously in this story, since Tobi is a good boy, for now. Sasuke only became a good guy because Naruto would have stomped a mud hole named Sasuke and walked it dry, gave him the rock bottom and then choke slammed him so hard that Madara would feel it. Fact is, any fight between them would have been so horribly one-sided that it would only be fair if Naruto broke one of his legs and blinded himself in one eye, at the very least.

**Yuri-Hime-Chan:** Yue has what I call 'Situational Genius Level Intellect,' meaning she's basically a Naruto fanfiction version of Sheldon Cooper, mentally at least. She's smart in areas like bukijutsu, ninjutsu and taijutsu, as well as location based tactics, but she's a complete and total moron in normal settings and situations, such as reading emotional cues (directed at her) and lying.

As for why she's spilling the beans on her jutsu and their functions, she has a reason that will come up soon enough.

**Rose Contestshipping fan88:** I figured if Killer B could survive when Gyūki is trying to keep him alive, and with Isobu being so kind, he'd do his best to keep Rin alive after the extraction. As for her effectiveness in returning Obito to the good side, well, I have plans in place.

As for her place in Akatsuki's ranks, she didn't have one. Rin was introduced to Akatsuki as 'Mana,' a kunoichi who served Yue. Due to her chakra altering from Isobu's actions, Obito didn't recognize her at all. The only member of 'Team Yue' that was officially affiliated with Akatsuki was Yue herself, but only as a mercenary.

**Rocketshipping fan:** Yue is a half demon, so of course her power level would be higher. Think about it, she has Uchiha and Senju ancestors, and her father is a legendary ninja too. Sakura has far better chakra control and, once she gets the Yin Seal, will have more survivability than Yue has due to her almost instantaneous healing and the Strength of a Hundred being active.

As for Ino helping, I wonder if she's ready to help out at all, or if she even can help Yue. You might need to wait a bit to find out. I will give you a spoiler: Ino can do what Sakura can't.

**Super Saiyan Sakura Haruno:** I wonder how this ending was for you? And...I kinda lost my train of thought, or rather, the train of this conversation. What do you mean by 'more so Hinata?'

**NaruSaku Fan 100:** To be fair, Yue is able to swing a weapon the size of Zabuza with one hand, easy, so comparing her to Sakura is like comparing Bijū Mode Naruto to Part I Sasuke: a very one-sided comparison. As I pointed out already, Yue is a half demon descended from a legendary ninja and two of the most powerful clans in history.

**Sakura fan 55:** Yue is part cat, so of course girls think she's cute. She was designed to be cute, but rough at the same time. By the way, do you think she's cute with hair roughly the same length as end of Part I manga Sakura's hair?

Where did the hunch come from? The fact that Yue is a black cat and very prone to mischief? Or maybe it was in my last AN, when I predicted mayhem?

**MK loves NaruSaku:** Legacies are left by the dead and only Jiraiya is dead, and, as you pointed out, he didn't create the rasengan, so I'm not disrespecting his legacy, which was to bring peace to the war torn shinobi world. Yue copied the raikiri using her mangekyō, which, as I might point out, I'm surprised that Uchiha 'Ass-pull-every-chapter' Sasuke hasn't done yet. And, if you were paying attention, Naruto **taught** Yue how to use the rasengan up to the second stage, she just theorized how it worked based on what she saw Naruto do to Kabuto three years previous. Add to it that, as you saw last chapter, while she can use both raikiri and rasengan, both are weaker than the variants used by any of the other characters that use them. AND Minato taught the rasengan to Jiraiya and Kakashi, not just Jiraiya.

As for Yue being god-like in this fic... Yeah, gods always go around challenging human beings and getting their left arm shredded so badly that it becomes crippled, then pass out from exhaustion when the human is barely winded. They also get killed by little emo bastards all the time. Oh, and let's not forget that gods allow an entire village to dump all their angsty racist bullshit on them without raising a finger. She let an entire village mentally break her, cripple her skills and emotionally destroy her because she was afraid they would kill her if they didn't. Like I said before, Yue is weak in her emotions, the one thing you cannot put armor over.

If you want god-like, go read Naruto and pay attention to that emo little shit Sasuke. He took chakra from all the Kage and didn't die from an overload. He also pulled summons out of his ass, chakra as well and he, as we see lately, wows the crowd with abilities that shouldn't even work when he uses them. He's basically described as a new and improved Madara, and that was basically said too, while Naruto and his abilities are mentioned as an afterthought, if at all. Hell, like I pointed out earlier, Sasuke was being praised up and down by Naruto's own father while it was the Yin half of Kurama that praised Naruto. Kakashi spent a whole panel being stunned at Sasuke summoning a hawk in a different dimension while Naruto's ability to fly was basically a "Madara was able to do it, so Naruto can as well," accompanied with a mildly interested shrug.


	35. Loss and Loss

Chapter 35: Loss and loss

**Disclaimer: I own Kazeneko Yue, some jutsu and the Ruuko clan. That is all.**

What surrounded Yue was a ribcage of some sort, a spinal cord and a series of almost metallic ribs curving around her, ending in what looked like inward facing curved blades. The bones themselves were a color similar to that of stone-like volcanic glass, the flames around the ribcage was a very dark red, almost like dried blood. The spine was thick and mechanical looking, like a segmented pipe, bladed ridges sticking out the back of each vertebrae.

Yue stood up, the ribcage rising with her so it rose over Hanabi's head. "Hanabi, stay there," Yue commanded as flames started to sputter from the left side of the new jutsu. The few kunai that had found shallow homes in Yue's body fell out, barely any blood escaping the wounds.

One of the Ne ANBU moved to the front, holding a kunai in hand. "I have no fear of you and your sharingan genjutsu," he declared, stabbing at her with his kunai, thinking he'd pass through the chakra bones.

Yue didn't even flinch, the steel dagger shattering like it was brittle glass when it met her Susanoo. The flames kept sputtering as new bones were formed, the left shoulder and arm seeming to push out of the flames. After it formed three long fingers and a thumb, it seized the man and lifted him off the ground.

"You...tried to kill Hanabi, tried to kill me..." Yue said, her rage visible as the strange jutsu seemed to pulse, growing a slight bit more solid.

The man glared down into the girl's eyes. "You will fall, demon. We won't-"

CRACK! CRACK!

"GAAAAHHHHH!" the man screamed as the fingers closed on his body, effortlessly shattering his ribs, crushing his insides. They kept closing until the man screamed his last and the skeletal hand dropped his broken corpse to the ground.

"Which of you bastards is next?" she asked, her voice dripping with murderous intent, glaring at the people before her as the skeletal chakra arm beckoned.

Instantly, almost the entire crowd backed up, not wanting to die to this insane monster. Her power felt more than repulsive enough, but she could easily kill without even trying.

"Y-You demon! You murdered him!" a woman shouted, scared of what might happen, but still willing to give voice to her thoughts.

A man in the crowd looked away from the woman, who hadn't realized that Yue had executed a man who was a single step away from committing treason. Even if Yue had left him alive, he wouldn't live much longer than a week. In a way, Yue had cleaned up the village without all the bureaucratic bullshit the council normally brought up.

The skeletal hand picked up the man's corpse, then pushed it off to the side. "So it follows my will... This would be useful because of my arm..." Yue stopped there, looking at the area and noticing her distance vision was slightly blurry. She rubbed at her eyes with her right arm, then looked again. No change. _'My vision is starting to fail. I guess Ruuko only start to go blind after getting Susanoo. __That explains why Ruuko kenjutsu has such a heavy reliance on hearing, feeling through __the__ sword and the ability to sense people __through their KI__. __I thought it was to avoid demonic illusions and genjutsu...__'_

Kakashi noticed Yue's actions, realizing that the girl was starting to have problems with her eyesight. He himself had noticed that the vision of his sharingan was slowly being eaten away at too. Luckily his right eye was his own, meaning his vision was safe for one eye at least, allowing him to continue reading Icha Icha. It wasn't his bottom line, but it was his favorite past-time. Nothing would suck more than being a blind old man with more Icha Icha being released.

The remaining of the Ne ANBU went all out, jumping at Yue with explosive tags strapped to their bodies, ready to go off. Seeing the danger of this, Yue's Susanoo slapped most of them away so they'd explode with very little collateral damage, the final two were grabbed and thrown as well, though it was straight up.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Yue had just taken out some of the Ne ANBU's domestic division, or she rather helped them kill themselves. The fact of the matter is that Danzō had lost a portion of his power just now. Her rage at people willing to sacrifice a child to kill her was far from gone, in fact, it was even greater now. Her Susanoo, once more, seemed to grow in power as her anger rose, the still incomplete hand burning with flames.

"**Rasengan!"**

Yue and her Susanoo turned, the hand coming up in time to seize the ball of chakra, sparks spraying as the expanding rasengan scraped the bones, cracking pieces off in spite of the chakra reinforcement. Yue, seeing the damage her Susanoo was taking, made it shove the ball aside, smashing into the ground a bit behind her. After the jutsu was ground out, she noticed that one of the fingers was completely broken off, the other fingers fractured all over. _'It can move automatically to defend me as well... Interesting.'_

Red eyes met red eyes, Naruto angry that he had to rely on the power of Kyūbi again, but it was effective if Yue's jutsu had lost most of its hand. "What is that thing?"

"Just a sign that I am far beyond salvation, Naruto," Yue said, then grinned a bit, "you can call it 'Susanoo' though, that's what people call it."

"Seems it can't help much, since I broke its fingers," Naruto pointed out.

Yue focused her chakra and, right before Naruto's eyes, the Susanoo repaired itself. "You were saying?" Yue asked, starting to feel that the drain was getting to be a bit much. Summoning it for the first time, having it grow an arm, repairing it after blocking a charged rasengan... She couldn't keep it up for too much longer, especially since her chakra reserves hadn't been full to begin with. The fatigue from the chases and her shadow clones was building up too.

Naruto and his two clones were starting to form a wind release rasengan and Yue was certain that if a large rasengan damaged her Susanoo, what he was making would completely destroy it. Add into that, at this very moment, Yue realized that the ribcage was damn heavy and wouldn't let her jump too high or move quickly, she released it, the bones disintegrating and the flames dying out. Naruto stopped forming his jutsu, confused.

Yue looked at him, her mangekyō greatly dimmed, allowing the pattern to be seen clearly. They were nothing like Itachi's, making the younger ninja realize that mangekyō each had a unique pattern. A thick black ring was where all sharingan normally had a thin black ring, a horizontal line going from either side of her pupil to the ring, rounded ridges around the outside edge of the ring, tiny points on the inside part of it. They were an interesting ruby red rather than blood colored.

_'Kind of pretty,'_ Sakura thought, as did a few other girls and a rare handful of men.

Yue, as one would expect, never appreciated the appearance of her mangekyō, actually hating that she had any dōjutsu or bloodline to begin with, resulting in her refusing to use it in her youth, much to Anko's displeasure. Yue hated bloodlines, mostly because nearly everyone who had one seemed to have no moral compass when it came to using it and had a superiority complex because of the power at their disposal. She became a jōnin without anyone knowing she had sharingan, even if she was only given it so she'd die sooner. She deserved her former rank now, not like some people who only held rank due to their bloodline or ability to use jutsu exclusive to their family.

Hyūga were so reliant on their byakugan that it was pathetic, which was part of the reason she liked Hanabi, who heard of her and had come to learn how to be more rounded out while Naruto was training with the pervert and Kurenai was sharpening Sakura's chakra control during the chūnin exam break. The fact of the matter is that if you were to get out of the range of their hands, you could easily kill a Hyūga because they had no real long range skills, since their byakugan made them taijutsu monsters. Well, there was that air burst attack they had, but it was easy to dodge if you just stayed behind the Hyūga. Hanabi had seen Neji get defeated in the exams and she realized that taijutsu alone wasn't enough. With very little time, Yue had been trying to help the girl learn some ninjutsu. It was through that time that Yue learned that the Hyūga clan seemed to be like the Uchiha, most of the clan having an affinity, though the Hyūga appeared to be water rather than fire, probably why they could be so damn calm. Yue had been teaching the girl the basics of water manipulation before she left, though Yue had to read from a scroll to do so. Without her sharingan, water jutsu were impossible to use, just like almost any element other than fire or lightning.

The Uchiha, well, Yue had their eyes and knew of the temptations of their powers. Stealing jutsu, near perfect genjutsu immunity, ability to reflect genjutsu, casting genjutsu with a mere glance, the list was long. Yue actually found it funny that the Hyūga, and some other people, believed that the Uchiha had somehow copied their eyes. The byakugan only allowed the ability to see chakra, at a very high level of course, the sharingan's powers far exceeded that. If any dōjutsu was copied, the byakugan was a poor imitation of the sharingan. Yue could choose to copy jutsu, as opposed to Uchiha who automatically stole jutsu, or so she thought, so that was a bit of a relief. Of course, her current example of a regular Uchiha, Sasuke, showed that the clan was corrupt to the core and their affinity for fire was perfect for them, since their anger burned like a wildfire being fed by a dry wind.

There were other bloodlines in the world, but Yue had the most experience with the two she had just thought of. Fact is that most bloodline users became trapped by their own power, making them boringly predictable. That was the reason she hated Sasuke and saw Hanabi as a great kid, because Sasuke's sharingan had activated every time he fought and Hanabi had been learning that she didn't need her dōjutsu all the time. Of course, Yue had her sharingan active a lot, but that was because she had to make sure that she lasted long enough, that she pushed Naruto to his limits of power, so he could destroy the sharingan once and for all by killing her, Sasuke and Itachi. The sharingan would never plague the world again, there would never be another Madara or Sasuke. And if today was any indicator, she'd need her sharingan more and more as her vision failed.

Yue shot forward, starting up a taijutsu battle with Naruto. With one arm down, she dodged more than she blocked. Naruto's style seemed sharper now, more controlled. Yue didn't think Naruto was doing better because of her wounded arm or the fact that her Susanoo had hurt her slightly due to her inexperience with it, he truly was pushing her back with his own skills. More than once he surprised her and he sometimes scored clean hits on her. He had even pulled his injured arm out of the sling, though Yue could tell that he was mostly using it for balance.

Yue spied an uppercut that Naruto aimed at her stomach, placing her foot on his fist and using the force of his punch to throw herself back and onto a wall, where she stuck with the assistance of her still usable arm and feet. She sealed Tyrfing away, even at a distance, and summoned a guardless silver katana. "Sorry to cut this short, Naruto, but I've got things I have to do," Yue said.

Naruto stared up at her and was surprised when the little Hyūga girl ran out in front of him, after shoving him slightly. "Yue-san! Why did you abandon Konoha?" she demanded.

Yue didn't answer the girl, couldn't answer her. The girl had improved a lot from the relatively quiet girl who kept her emotions bottled up inside like a normal Hyūga. Either she took Yue's advice or the girl and her sister were getting along better now. Either way, it was nice to see the change.

"Answer me!" Hanabi shouted, her Hyūga side showing through, or at least the side she got from her father.

"It's difficult to explain. I'll just tell you that my goal is similar to Akatsuki's," Yue said, not looking at the girl who she considered her third student. Naruto was the first, Sakura the second, Hanabi the third. It hurt that all three looked at her as an enemy, as Akatsuki, but it was required, something Yue couldn't avoid.

"If that's the case, I can't let you leave!"

Yue turned to see a woman coming at her, an ANBU with a cat mask, sword on her back in its sheath, though that was quickly changed. Yue looked up, seeing a metal pole. In an expert performance, Yue shot to the pole, rebounded off it and swung her sword twice, the woman's now severed sword flying away as the back of her vest shredded, her mask also being cut loose. Before reaching the ground, Yue flipped her sword into the air, the weapon coming down and punching through the ANBU's still airborne mask, splitting it in two as it impaled itself in the ground next to the woman.

"I'll leave you with that one, treat it well," Yue said, then took off along the wall, aiming for the gates of the village. Everyone aside from a few ANBU followed, those men and women going to check their fallen coworker.

"Cat, you alright?" Owl asked.

Cat sat up, quickly putting a hand to her back. "She didn't even touch my shirt, just the vest... And some hair," she said.

At the gates, the guards shot off to either side, not wanting to deal with this girl that could summon a skeleton to fight her battles for her. "Yo-You'll never g-get through!" one of them shakily stuttered, scared.

Yue frowned as she ran up to the gates. "Tyrfing!" she commanded, the sword appearing as she jumped at the gate.

CRASH!

Yue had flipped in mid air and smashed the edge of her sword into the door, a wave of red energy racing over the door, the door lurching back as the force of the slash pushed it, all the locks and bars holding the doors from opening splitting from the sword's edge and the demonic energy Yue put behind it. Not wasting any time, Yue rammed into one of the gates, the barrier creaking as it shifted open enough for her to leave, which she did.

Tsunade and the crowd stopped at the gates. "Damn... Naruto! You and your friends go after her! The objective of this A-rank mission is to bring her back!" the blonde commanded.

Naruto nodded and he led the Eleven Leaves, plus Sai, after Yue.

_[A few hours later]_

The team returned, far from triumphant. Yue had dodged them, trapped them, even Kiba and Akamaru were bawling from being hit with pepper/onion bombs right in their sensitive noses and eyes. Neji was still temporarily blind from the intense flash of lightning that she breezed his nose with. All in all, Yue had escaped and humiliated them in hopes that they would give up chasing her, which worked when she used 'oiroke no jutsu: Sakura Han' on Naruto, letting him feel the potency of his own original jutsu first hand, though Lee got caught up in it too. She had attempted to put Sakura under the effects of Tsukuyomi again, but Naruto had prevented it.

Tsunade decided that they needed information on Akatsuki. Rather than dig up Hidan's head and spit on Shikamaru's efforts and wishes, as well as violate the Nara clan law preventing non-Nara from entering that forest, she ordered the teams to go hunting for three known Akatsuki targets: Uchiha Itachi, Hoshigaki Kisame and Kazeneko Yue.

_[A few days later, near Orochimaru's northern hideout]_

Yue was trying to dig up more information on Orochimaru, having already collected the ring he had stolen from Akatsuki. Sasuke was missing, so she wanted to see if anyone had news of his whereabouts. Kabuto was missing as well, but he was probably killed by Sasuke or went mad, hiding somewhere in fear. She had already found one of Orochimaru's people, a kekkei genkai user named Guren, who had given over her information on two of Orochimaru's bases: the northern and southern hideouts. When Yue asked why she was getting the information so easily, Guren bitterly told her that she'd been tossed aside in favor of Sasuke. That and Kabuto had killed a young boy she had cared for. Basically, the woman wanted revenge and told Yue to bring Kabuto to her if he was ever found, preferably with his limbs shattered so he couldn't run away.

Akatsuki had reset the clock on her body's steady breakdown, as well as healing her arm as much as they could. Her left arm was drastically weakened, unable to be used in combat unless it was with hand seals, a raikiri sword or yōki attacks. It even had a tremor sometimes, probably from the nerve damage she had suffered. Luckily the nerves and tendons had been repaired, allowing her to conquer the now somewhat daunting tasks of handling chopsticks, reading and writing! Seriously, fine movement was a bit rough on her left hand now and her grip strength would allow a civilian to beat her in thumb wrestling. Oh well, she could use her right hand too, so it wasn't a huge loss. Good thing she downplayed the injury or else Pain would have had her monitored by that Zetsu freak.

So here she was, not too far from the northern hideout, where Hebi-teme's curse seal was born, and who does she find?

Uchiha Sasuke, along with three ninja.

Yue decided it was time to finish her little game with Sasuke. She didn't care about having an honorable or even worthwhile match, she just needed to stop the pursuit of Konoha completely. Dumping Sasuke at Konoha's feet would stop their pursuit of Yue dead while they tended to their precious prince.

"It's decided then," Sasuke said, completing the creation of his team.

"What's decided?" Yue asked, appearing in a shower of sparks.

Sasuke turned, calmly glaring at her. "I knew you were here, my scar was acting up."

"You should really get that checked out," Yue said in all seriousness.

Sasuke noticed Yue's jacket. "Those marks... You're Akatsuki, just like Itachi..."

"You always did have awe inspiring powers of observation, genius," Yue said.

"I should kill you, but you'd be far more valuable if I caught you. I might be able to drag Itachi out of hiding," Sasuke stated.

Yue's eye brow rose. "Hiding? You make it sound like he's afraid of you. He's got more important things to deal with."

"You don't need arms or legs to talk, though I'd like to cut your heart out this time," Sasuke growled.

"And I want nothing more than to burn your bones out of existence with a blaze release, but I'll end it at breaking your legs. These ones that you picked up, they'll be the ones who will die," Yue said, drawing Aka Kubikirihōchō.

"Suigetsu, there is your prize," Sasuke said, pointing at the crystallized blood sword in Yue's hand.

The sword lover looked the blade over. "Looks very different from how I remember it, but I like the blood coloring," he said, smirking as he drew his sword.

Yue activated her mangekyō, knowing that she'd need it if these guys had been kept by Orochimaru for so long. He didn't keep useless things.

Karin was sweating, sensing all the chakra around her. _'H-How is this possible? Her chakra...its so dark...__almost black.__ Even the curse seal on her neck is __bright__er than it. Sasuke, I don't think we should fight her. __I-I think we should beg her to let us leave! __And what is this foreign chakra I'm sensing from deep within her? Something's seriously wrong with her!__'_

Sasuke calmly drew his sword. "Suigetsu, enjoy yourself."

The water user ran forward, holding the long blade at the ready to cut Yue in two. She saw this coming, knew his attack angle and everything already due to the powers of her sharingan. When his blade started to slide forward to bifurcate her, she performed a jump that was a few inches above the sword and landed in pretty much the same spot she had started from, but deep in his guard this time as his sword went very wide.

"What the-" he started, only to have Yue swing her sword and cleaved both his Achilles tendons.

Crackle...

Yue vanished, flickering back into view with charges of lightning arcing off her body as she moved. With each charge, she appeared in a different area near Suigetsu, her blade held at the end of a swing.

Crackle, crackle, crackle, crackle.

Yue reappeared before him, sword held behind her right shoulder.

_'She cut me?'_ he thought, feeling his body coming apart.

Yue swung her blade down hard, cleaving through Suigetsu's body, cutting his brain, trachea,, spine, aorta and guts in two, her blade hitting the ground with enough force to actually cause the ground to fracture under the edge as a week gust of wind blew away from the impact point.

Splash! Splash! Splash!

Yue's eyes widened, realizing that each slash felt off. Seeing water where the teen had been, Yue shot off with her lightning enhanced speed, getting well out of range of the boy.

Suigetsu reformed, his shirt barely rags, his pants turned to shorts. "Damn, she sliced my sword up," he grumbled as he looked at the hilt and handle.

SPLASH! "Worry about your clothes, dumbass!" Karin screamed, having punched the boy in the head, reducing it to water.

Yue chuckled. "Looks like you reformed Team 7."

Sasuke wanted to argue, but suddenly saw Suigetsu as Naruto and Karin as Sakura, minus the love the blond had for the pink haired girl. He kept it inside, but he mentally groaned and face palmed. _'Dammit! What the hell was I thinking? __WAS I thinking at all?__'_

"Well, I guess that means you're a little homesick," Yue said.

Sasuke decided to get back at her. "Maybe I'm a **tiny bit** homesick. You know all about how **low** a person can get when they miss home."

Yue's cat ear twitched. "What?"

"Sorry, you must be a bit **short** of hearing," Sasuke said, smirking.

"Allude to me being short. One more time, I dare you," Yue warned.

"This fight would be much more interesting if only the stakes were **higher**," Sasuke said, smirking like he had won the fight already.

Yue appeared before Sasuke, her sharingan blazing. She drove her fist into the Uchiha's stomach, making him fold from the force of her blow. With him like that, she pulled her arm back and swung her leg up, clipping Sasuke in the forehead with her knee, making him lean back. To end it all, Yue hopped up slightly and swung her leg down, her heel crashing into Sasuke's chest, slamming him into the ground with enough force to leave a Sasuke-print behind. This all happened in less than three seconds.

"I can't help it if I'm a runt!" Yue roared, practically spitting flames in her rage. If one knew her, they'd say that Yue resembled the Red Hot Habanero, Uzumaki Kushina.

"S-S-S-Sasuke?" Karin squeaked, thinking the Uchiha was dead from that attack. Luckily, he wasn't. Poor Sasuke, still fully conscious, was wondering how the hell he just got his ass handed to him so quickly and effortlessly. He couldn't process how the power gap between them was so damn large.

Suigetsu moved forward, only for Yue to fire lightning into him, proving that water was a great conductor.

Yue felt the massive spike of killing intent, shifting away in time to avoid Jūgo's transformed arm. When he swung again, she summoned a large shield and put it in the way.

CLANG! CRACK!

Yue was shocked when the shield shattered from the force of the man's blow, but she reacted quickly and activated her level 2 curse seal enough to produce the chakra arms, catching the blow and stopping it completely.

"Y-you too," Jūgo managed through his killing rage.

Yue directed the arms to wrap up the arm of the curse seal's origin, completing her curse seal as she went, aiming to throw Jūgo overhead, to get rid of him for a few moments. The man reacted faster though, smashing his knee into her forehead before he was flung aside. Suigetsu worked up his nerve again, or got over the raiton that had been lanced into him, and surged into Yue, attempting to drown her as he became a ball of water.

"Give it up," the water user stated, though the only form of 'giving up' he'd accept would be her death. Kami he wished he had a sword, then he'd stab her a few times through his water body.

Yue struggled, using her curse seal, using her chakra, none of it worked. _'Susanoo wouldn't work either, not until I break free... Che, time to negate the suiton.'_

"I-I think she's giving up," Karin muttered, looking over her teammate.

Yue opened her eyes, dark red flame on her right hand, pale blue on her left, then she brought them together. _**"Onmyōton: **__**Kasukēdo..."**_

Splaaash!

Suigetsu slowly reformed his body from a puddle, finding it far more difficult than normal. "What the hell did she do?"

Yue hefted her left arm up, a deep navy blue crossbow with silver on it attached to her forearm, water flowing around both. _**"You are nothing to me anymore, boy."**_

Suigetsu snorted, then flew through some hand seals. **"Suiton: Suiryūdan no jutsu!"**

Yue held her left hand out, the silvery bow glowing brightly, the water spiraling faster as a lot more joined it, her other hand held in a half ram seal as her mangekyō glowed. _**"Suiton: Suikōdan no jutsu."**_

A water shark that formed from the floating water and slammed into the dragon, tearing the serpent's throat out as it kept going forward. Suigetsu barely managed to change into water, allowing the jutsu to fly over his head. He reformed. "Damn! Sasuke didn't mention you could use suiton as well."

"_**I can't,"**_ Yue said.

"Then what did you just do?" Suigetsu demanded.

Yue pointed the bow at the boy. _**"I didn't do anything at all."**_

As they watched, water flowed from nearby water sources, flowing through the air itself, heading for the bow. Luckily, Suigetsu was not pulled in.

_'The hell is that thing? It's creeping me out,'_ Suigetsu thought.

Karin couldn't take her eyes off the bow. _'So__lid chakra__...'_

Sasuke managed to figure out what happened a few moments ago (in his mind) and forced himself into a sitting position.

"_**I'll kill you!"**_ Jūgo roared as he rushed up from behind Yue, axe arm raised over her head, a maniacal gleam in his eyes that matched the grin beneath them.

Yue spun around and pointed the bow at the man, a bolt of water ready to go. _**"**__**Shūha Kaze**__**,"**_ she stated.

Twock!

SPLASH!

…..

CRASH!

Jūgo had been hit dead in the chest with a large bolt made from water, which pushed him back a good distance, then detonated in a massive spray of water, sending him into a rock wall with enough force to stun him. He was even knocked out of his psychotic rage, though it was only temporary.

"The hell?!" Suigetsu shouted, unable to believe that she had that much power. And what suiton was that? He'd never heard of such a jutsu.

Yue winced, the bow breaking into water and falling off. She felt the bite to her chakra, not as significant as one would think, but she knew that she had to play it very safe now. The true drawback of the reimyō buki was in full effect now. She also shut down her curse seal, since it would just hinder her.

"You two, back me up. She's not as powerful as our target, but she's still a thorn in my side," Sasuke said, rallying the ragtag team. Jūgo was still a bit dazed.

Yue growled. "Don't think I'm such a pushover, Uchiha! **Susanoo!**" The ribcage and arm blazed to life around her.

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock, having remembered his father telling him of this legendary power the Uchiha had. He never thought he'd see it in his lifetime, never wanted to see it either, especially against him. It was even worse that some little bitch from a weaker clan had it.

Suigetsu and Karin scattered as Yue drove the Susanoo's lone fist forward, shattering the ground. The hand shot out after Karin, catching her and driving itself into the ground, stunning the girl. From within the Susanoo, Yue released a lightning blast to fry Suigetsu again. She had noticed that he slowed a bit, both his speed and his jutsu, when electrocuted by her. She didn't know if it was that way for all raiton that hit him or if it was just her own positively charged raiton, but it worked. Jūgo was still staggering around like a drunk.

"Just you and me now, Sasuke," Yue said as she released Karin's partially conscious form, walking forward in spite of the massive burden her Susanoo put on her. She knew she was doing something wrong, since Itachi always said his was light until its completed skeletal form, but this was all she had now and she had to make due with it.

Sasuke went to strike Yue with his sword, but she used her Susanoo to disarm him with a backhanded slap to his arm. He ran through the seals and spat a fireball at her, but she used her Susanoo to force it into the ground, smothering the fire. He then tried to get her with his chidori sharp spear.

It hit, the electrified blade punching through the bones with ease, lancing through Yue's left shoulder.

"Got you, Ruuko," Sasuke said, increasing the charge. He smiled as the ribcage cracked some more around the electric blade.

Yue gripped the lightning sword with her right hand, sighing. "Pathetic."

Crack!

Sasuke's eyes widened when she twisted the blade of lightning, actually snapping it. He then remembered how he had built up the power of his raiton to counter Naruto's rasengan and Itachi's might, forgetting Yue's extreme talent with the very weapon he had honed for three years. It was like trying to drown a shark with a suiton: utterly useless. In his defense, he thought she had died that night three years ago.

The right half of the Susanoo faded away. Yue held her right arm back, lightning crackling wildly. Pristine white lighting surrounded Yue's hand. **"****Raikiri: ****Idai Yari!"** Yue shouted, a surging brand of lightning extending from her hand, rushing at Sasuke's heart.

"Sasuke!" Karin shouted, tackling the young Uchiha out of the way, just in time for the spear to miss them. It lanced into a wall, punching through it with ease, passing through two more solid stone barriers before Yue cancelled it out.

_'Dammit! She's advanced even further, and she used raikiri rather than chidori. She's far more dangerous than I originally thought,'_ Sasuke mused. He'd need to kill her somehow, but with her talents, she might be able to rival Itachi someday, maybe even exceed his power. It'd be nice if he could copy the raikiri, but she didn't use hand seals for it and the chakra flow was nearly impossible for a regular sharingan to track.

Yue flung her hands out, Susanoo fading completely, palms facing out. Lightning crackled, forming six rough spears, three on either side of her. "My chakra reserves far outstrip yours, Sasuke. How many times can you use chidori per day? Can you dodge my Raikiri Gatoringu?" she asked.

Sasuke decided to stop messing around, it was time to use _that._

Yue swung her hands forward, the lightning spears swung up and shot towards Sasuke in very quick succession, who dodged them or, in the case of one, cut it in two with his sword. He went to use his jutsu, but Yue finished her hand seals first.

"**Katon: Gōka Messhitsu****!"** Yue shouted, releasing a powerful blast of fire at the lake, evaporating a very large amount of it in the process, and partially burning part of the prison/lab. It looked less like a katon and more like the wrath of a fire god.

"Sasuke! Are you alright?" Karin screeched, the heat of the flames having drained the medic of her fighting spirit. The other two, Suigetsu and Jūgo were standing, though Suigetsu looked tired from the extreme heat he'd almost been subjected to.

Jūgo turned to face Yue, Suigetsu and Sasuke standing on either side of him.

"What? You're going to band together to fight me?" Yue asked, her purring tone replaced with an angry growl as she felt herself weaken from using so much chakra so quickly, "and here I thought Uchiha Sasuke_-sama_ didn't need help from anyone!"

Sasuke drew his sword out of the ground. "To kill you, to kill Itachi, I'll do anything I have to. I'll let myself be corrupted, I'll take drugs to speed up my growth, I'll suffer agonizing training, I'll even team up with others, so long as you and Itachi are dead in the end, I'll do it."

Yue shot forward with Aka Kubikirihōchō, ready to cut down Jūgo. She didn't count on Suigetsu becoming a wave, smashing into her and temporarily blinding her, just long enough for Jūgo to drive a hard punch into her chest, sending her flying back while her sword flipped away, nearly impaling Karin in the head.

"Che! Missed," Suigetsu grumbled as he reformed.

"BAKAYAROOOOO!" Karin roared, throwing rocks at the water user, who let them tear through his liquid body.

Yue was starting to get up, but Sasuke slammed his foot down on the spot he had driven a kunai three years ago. "Suffer!" he declared, forcing lightning through his foot and into the scar. Yue screamed, her chakra sensitive nerves sending more pain signals then necessary due to the damage they had suffered previously.

Sasuke kept it up for a while, then stopped when Yue stopped making noise. He pulled his foot off of her, noting that she was actually smoking slightly. The Uchiha figured it was probably due to them being complete opposites in terms of electrical polarity, which would explain why their raiton didn't mix well.

"Is she dead?" Jūgo asked, a bit concerned.

Sasuke stomped on Yue's left shoulder, getting a mewl of pain from her. "Not yet," he said, lifting his sword overhead.

"Sasuke! We don't need to kill her!" Karin shouted.

The boy looked at her, his sharingan glaring into her soul. "Why not?"

"B-Because she might have c-clues to Itachi!" Karin stuttered, scared for a moment there.

Sasuke grunted in agreement. He knelt next to his former teammate, grabbed her hair and roughly lifted it up as he glared into her mangekyō with his sharingan. "Well, anything in that useless skull of yours related to where Itachi is?"

"Rot in...He-Hell...you duckass headed...fucked up mis..take," Yue managed, seriously feeling pain from her cracked ribs. The raiton didn't help matters, but it only aggravated the fact that Jūgo nearly broke all her ribs with one punch. Yue nicknamed him 'The Hammer.'

Sasuke shook his head as he let hers drop. "I'll let you live, but you are never going to attack me again."

"Make...me," Yue shot back as her mangekyō reverted to her original eyes.

Sasuke grinned coldly, scaring Suigetsu and Karin. "I fully intend to." He held his blade over her, point aimed down at her.

_[Twenty minutes later]_

Karin had done what she was told, but couldn't look at the girl or the very slowly spreading puddle of blood that spread from her. Thankfully, the screaming only lasted a few minutes.

_'Is this how Sasuke is now? I wonder if I should be following him...'_ Karin thought to herself. There was brutality, then there was what Sasuke had just done.

Sasuke was satisfied that his sword was free of blood, therefor not at risk of rusting, so he put it back into its sheath with an audible click. "We're done here, time to move on."

They would have moved on, but something stopped them.

"Kyaaaa!"

The guys turned to see Karin, held by Yue, the hanyō's teeth sunk into the girl's left shoulder.

Suigetsu drew his new sword with both hands. "She's damn persistent!"

Karin struggled to talk, but she couldn't because Yue's right hand was wrapped around her neck. After a half minute, Yue dropped the girl, looking a hell of a lot stronger than she did a moment ago, Karin looked exhausted. "She has a most interesting healing ability, and it replenished some of my chakra too, good thing Guren mentioned it," Yue noted, then glared at Sasuke's team with her reactivated sharingan.

Sasuke's face remained impassive. "What are you going to do now? How much more will it take for you to mind your own business?"

Yue summoned Tyrfing as her sharingan flickered, making Suigetsu partially change into water in excitement at the sight of her weapon. "I don't kill for pleasure or because I want to, I give death to those who deserve it. But you know what, Uchiha Sasuke?" Yue asked, her voice still gravely with anger, "I'm no better than a common killer. Cutting people apart, killing them, feeling their blood hit my skin, it's the best thing I'm able to experience in a world that despises me and wishes for my death." Suigetsu was nodding his head vigorously, agreeing with her completely. Killing and cutting were the best!

"So this is why Orochimaru marked you as well," Sasuke noted. The man did have a good eye for strength, insanity and a willingness to slaughter. Pity he couldn't see treachery coming for him, just like his old master. _'Hn, the irony.'_

Yue pointed the blade at Sasuke, her mangekyō glowing bright red. "Sasuke, I was going to defeat you, throw you back to Konoha, to Ino, but now I'm not going to bother with that. You're a threat to everything around you, a cancer that takes and takes and destroys! Hell doesn't want you, but I'm going to send you there anyway, in pieces!"

Sasuke smirked. "You aren't a threat to me, not anymore. Next time I see you, be of some use and bring Itachi so I can kill him."

Yue laughed. "You don't understand, do you? He's out of your reach, you useless moron! He was ANBU while you were struggling to climb a fucking tree! You were only called a genius because of your last name, you dumbass Uchiha! You're nothing at all to anyone on this world! Did you think he's just been sitting around, waiting for you? He's strong, far stronger than that bastard you killed not too long ago, and he's only getting stronger. Orochimaru was the worst person to go receive training from because he was AFRAID of Itachi and his power!"

Sasuke coldly glared at the girl. "He chose me to end him, to avenge the Uchiha clan that he massacred."

"And you struggled against me, one Ruuko with failing sharingan and a crippled arm! He cut down an entire clan of fully able sharingan users! If he wanted to, he could just snap your neck and be done with you, to go do bigger and better things, like capturing Naruto and other jinchūriki for Akatsuki," Yue said, "face it Sasuke, you don't fit into anyone's grand scheme. You're just a pawn without a king, moving about without a clue as to what you should do. You aren't important in the least bit. He didn't spare you to be an avenger, he spared you because you weren't worth the time or effort."

Sasuke lanced a chidori sharp spear into her heart, surprised when she cracked like glass. "Genjutsu..."

"Did you really think I'd stand in the open after I got up?" Yue's voice echoed over the area, "I put you and your 'team' under my mangekyō's genjutsu while I was healing myself with Karin's power. You really need to work on your genjutsu resistance, since I'm nowhere near as good as Itachi. At this rate, he could have you think you were killing him while he was really gutting you with your own sword."

"Coward!" Suigetsu shouted.

"I'm in no condition to fight right now. I'll leave you alone, to wander around behind that deluded fool you call a leader," Yue said, her voice fading near the end.

Karin got to her feet, having a bit of trouble at first. "I can't sense her anymore. I think she left a shadow clone to tell us all that."

Sasuke grunted, turning from where the girl had last been. "We're going. Akatsuki must have a base nearby, so if we look around it, we'll find information on Itachi's whereabouts."

The others agreed and decided to search around for the base, if there was one, then move on to gather information on Itachi.

_[Later that day, far from the Northern Hideout]_

Yue growled as pain wracked her entire body, a deep and burning pain at that. It felt like lava was running through her veins. "What's...ngh...happening to me?" She looked at her hands, watched as blood red energy dripped from the cracking skin of her hands and forearms. She felt pain in her face and knew that the same was happening there as well.

While Yue was busy with her pain, a number of samurai stepped out of the bushes, their green armor color matching the forest behind them perfectly. "Slay the beast while she's weak!" the leader ordered.

"Yes!" the other ten cheered. They smelled like cats, proving that they were nekomata.

The men charged at Yue, blades raised. Yue saw them, but the pain kicked in even more than before. She saw that there was freaking light burning out of the cracked skin now. "Maybe that was a bad idea, whatever _that_ was..."

From miles away, anyone could see the explosion of red light. The blast lasted a few moments, then a shock wave tore through a limited area of the forest as the light faded away.

Yue coughed a bit as she stood up, hugging her left arm to her body as she did so. "What the hell... Huh? I'm not hurting anymore?" She looked at the wounds, noticing that they were just bad cracks in her skin. They hurt, but nowhere near the level they hurt before. They were even starting to heal.

Yue winced slightly as she felt a familiar chakra. She turned around, forming a ram seal as she focused on the chakra, connecting to it.

Yue's vision was replaced with the interior of a cave, shadowy figures appearing in a circle. Yue stood slightly behind two figures, one with an ornament in their hair and the other had spiky hair, sort of like Naruto's.

"Now that we're all here..." the spiky haired one began.

"Uh, customer-san..." the man tried.

"What?" a very irate Yue asked. She was still pissed about her fight against Sasuke, and that was nearly a week ago. It didn't help matters that it was so soon after _that_ event. Yue clenched her right hand, nails almost biting into her palms. _'I hate people who toy with others...'_

The man winced. "Uh, you should really slow down a bit..."

Yue took a long swig of the burning alcohol, a passing habit she picked up from Kisame. The man didn't drink much, rarely in fact, but he, Itachi and Deidara had taken Yue to a bar for her eighteenth birthday and they discovered something about her then. First, it wasn't her first time to a bar. Second...

"It's not like I can get drunk off this stuff. Just accept the money and I'll keep drinking," Yue grumbled, putting some money down. Sadly, Yue drank Anko under a table when Yue was only twelve. It helped that Yue's body burned alcohol so quickly that she'd have to drink a whole gallon of the really strong stuff in less than ten minutes to become dizzy.

The man winced as he got a bottle of the strongest, and most expensive alcohol he had. He once served this to Senju Tsunade herself and she was laid out after half a bottle. This hanyō had downed ten bottles and the only sign she actually drank it was the scent of the sake on her heated breath. He should be happy for the business, but...

"I don't really like serving someone who doesn't appreciate the drink," he said, grudgingly handing over the bottle.

Yue took the top off and poured herself another saucer of the liquid. "I do appreciate it, I'll just never get drunk off it," she said, then drank it, "I can get my hands on stuff that will knock out your sturdiest patron just from the smell. THAT stuff can get me wasted."

The man's interest was peaked. Not only was he a bartender, he was also something of an alcohol connoisseur. He would often leave his little stand to his friend when he heard of new drinks being mixed or people brewing new alcohols, just so he could try them out and see if he should serve it to his customers. Despite his stand being small, it was one of the most well equipped bars in all the nations. He was actually waiting for confirmation on being allowed to serve a new drink, one that was almost pure alcohol and could easily be mixed with others due to it being tasteless. He hoped to open a new, far larger bar in Konoha soon, since he had more than enough money to open a chain of bars.

"Hmm. Can I try some?" he asked.

Yue grinned as she finished the bottle off. She twitched her tail, the ring on it glowing brightly. A white furred, regal looking Balinese cat the size of a lion appeared and Yue spoke to the cat in a language the man didn't understand, then it disappeared. A few minutes later, a white haired gentleman appeared with four bottles that were tied together at the necks hanging from one hand, a dark wood platter with an elegant drinking saucer resting on the center of it. His well made clothing of a very formal style, coupled with his demeanor and bearing, all suggested that the man was both a bartender and a butler.

"Lady, I have brought what you requested of me," the man stated, holding up the four bottles.

Yue nodded and gestured to the bar top. "I'd like a nice drink to forget some things for a while, and this man would like to try some nekomata sake," she said.

The butler set the bottles on the bar top, removing one from the bindings. He set the expensive saucer before Yue and popped the cork as the stand's bartender got his own saucer out.

After their drinks had been poured, the man smelled his drink, finding it to be extremely sweet scented, but very heavy as well. He knew that more than a few drinks would render him completely drunk, a few more would probably blind him. He was quite surprised when his customer, who he had seen as a bit of a drunk cretin, actually smelled the drink like he had. They both sipped, the human coughing a bit at the sudden and intense burn while the hanyō sighed in contentment.

"Now that's what I call alcohol," she said, knowing half of the bottle would make her worries run into a little corner of her mind and stop bothering her for a while. She smirked as the man stopped coughing, wiping a tear from his eye. "Good, eh? I'd say a saucer is more than enough for most humans," she stated.

The man took another sip, managing to not cough this time, though he did wince a bit. "It's very sweet too."

The butler frowned. "Sweet? The alcohol is supposed to be all about heat. Something must be wrong with it."

Yue waved at the man. "Don't worry about it. This stuff is always sweet, you and the rest just can't taste or smell it."

The butler nodded, a bit unsure. It was odd sometimes, since their little princess had a different pallet compared to them. 'Sweet' was one of the new things they struggled to learn about. They knew that honey and sugar were sweet, since they had been told this, but they didn't notice it themselves.

"How do they make this?" the bartender asked, finally used to the burn after nearly emptying his saucer. His years of sake tasting were helping him resist the alcohol's very strong influence, but he wouldn't last too much longer if he kept drinking.

"I can't tell you, but I will say it involves techniques humans cannot use," Yue said.

The butler poured another saucer out for the bartender. "Enjoy, sir," he offered.

The bartender took another sip. "I wonder if I could have a bottle or two, to see if my regulars like it. It'd be an interesting business venture," he suggested, looking to Yue.

Yue finished her third saucer, feeling the effects slightly. "Nnn. My grandfather is stagnating everything. Trading is a great way to kick the economy in its slacker ass and get it running again. I think I'll take you up on that offer. Maybe, if things go well, you could wind up supplying the nations and us nekomata can finally get things rolling again."

The man held up his saucer. "Business partners?"

Yue tapped her saucer to his. "Yeah, let's hope it works out."

After a bottle was in her, the images of Team 7, Team Anko, Hyūga Hanabi, Yamanaka Ino, all of them started to blur out of Yue's head for a while, letting her escape the demons that tore apart her mind and heart every night.

Didn't do anything about the murderous headache she woke up to.

_[An Akatsuki hideout, Two days later]_

Whoosh!

"What the hell?" Deidara muttered, looking at the newcomer who just barged in. He was still pissed off at how Yue told him that he wasn't strong enough to deal with Sasuke and his team. As if that idiot cat knew anything at all! He hated sharingan users!

"Oh! Oh! Who is this Deidara-senpai?!" Tobi excitedly asked while trying to not bounce around. As expected, he failed miserably at staying still while excited.

"That's-" Itachi started.

A blade suddenly extended from the sleeve of the newcomer, ending a bare inch from the Uchiha's left eye.

"Kukuku. Did you miss me Itachi?"

**A/N~**

An old arrival in one of Akatsuki's bases? Before you guys get the wrong idea, Yue's coping methods are not drinking or reading smut, she's just gained an interest in both of them, and getting drunk is a way for her to run from her problems. Her coping method will be revealed later. While I'm here, her drunken personality isn't too different from normal.

Since I brought up a nekomata's breed, Yue is a pure black Siberian nekomata/human hybrid, a runt of course, resulting in her being small. If you know your cats, then this partially explains Yue's physical abilities and learning speed. She also has the triple purr and, although it has not been done yet in this fic, can 'chirp meow' like said breed as well. Her tail fur's length is managed, since, as she claims, "I look like I'm shocked all the time if I don't cut it, no pun intended."

While I'm here, I'm surprised that people didn't rage at Yue getting a Susanoo.

**Jutsu Index-**

**Oiroke no jutsu: Sakura Han** [Sexy Technique: Sakura Version] – A variation of the Sexy Technique that involves the user turning into a nude version of Sakura. It is noted that the jutsu was highly effective against Naruto, who was blown away by it, and Lee, who started screaming about having dirty thoughts involving Sakura.

**Raikiri: Idai Yari** [Lightning Blade: Great Spear] – Yue's version of Sasuke sharp spear, but using the Raikiri. She coats her entire arm in lighting and extends a flat, undulating blade from her palm or fingertips, forming a deadly spear with far more piercing power than the Chidori. She can also extend it like Sasuke does, but it weakens the jutsu.

**Raikiri Gatoringu** [Lightning Blade Gatling] – The original form of Chidori Mizukiri. Yue uses the chidori to fire off short spears of lightning. Yue can form three spears with each hand and fires them off in gatling gun fashion.

**Reimyō Buki Index-**

**Kasukēdo** [Cascade] – The water Ethereal Arm. It appears as a standardized crossbow, aside from its size and the fact that parts of it appear to be made or water, such as the bow string. Its powers are all related to water flow types and are nearly relentless, even though it is only partially mastered. Has the ability to draw on most natural sources of water for ammunition.

**Shūha Kaze** [Wave Blaster] – The power of a wave compressed into a large bolt made from water. Possesses more than enough power to throw large grown men back a few feet, but doesn't cause much in the way of direct damage. A jutsu exclusive to the Kasukēdo.

**Weapon Intro-**

Name: (Cursed Sword) Tyrfing

Type: Unknown, Single edged sword

Blade length: 3 feet long

Blade width: Five inches

Coloring: A black blade with a gold and silver handle and a strange, seemingly living tail.

Particular traits: Wide blade, no guard, blade and handle appear to be one piece, handle has a tail-like structure attached to it, weapon appears to be alive to some degree

History: Tyrfing was a sword created by a demon who was incapable of allowing his monstrous yōki out of his body. Ironically, he wasn't the type of demon to kill people, but was forced to when the Ruuko came at him. After his death, the blade was cursed with his rage and frustration at finally being able to use his powers, only to be cut down. This caused anyone who tried to wield the blade go mad with insanity and attempt to kill anything within reach of them. The influx of yōki would steadily eat away at their body before they died from it.

Yue is the blade's second true wielder and, in a twist of irony, suffered the same issue as the original wielder. By forcibly combining some of her power with the blade, she has cured herself of her yōki disability. It is unknown if she requires the blade to use her yōki anymore or if she is free to use all of her demonic power without it.

Rumor has it that Tyrfing never misses a target and it can never be destroyed. It is unknown if the former is true, since Yue has missed plenty of times with it.

**Predictions-**

Damn. I forgot one last time. Oh well, it wasn't that hard to figure out that, somehow, Kaguya became the Jūbi.

I predict that, if Naruto does die, Sasuke will use Rinne Tensei to bring him back.

I predict that, if Sasuke does die, many people will be extremely happy, but everyone in the manga will be sad.

**Responses-**

**Profesional Ninja:** Susanoo is described and it will be explained during the war why Yue's Susanoo and the chakra surrounding it are different colors. As for Ino's reaction to that power, you will see it during the war, when Yue masters Susanoo.

**Yuri-Hime-Chan:** Yuriko meeting Ino... That will occur later, when the lust crazed clone can be better controlled. As for the redhead, she's a random woman, has no ties to the Uzumaki clan (or does she?) and her hair color was wine red. This woman will be brought up later, because she has a slight bearing to the story. You'd actually be surprised at who she is.

**ValeriNera:** Lesbian hanyo, a non-emo/fake evil/perverted sharingan user, lust crazed clone and a lesbian harem. Easy to see why it is one of your favorites. That, and it updates.

**Rose Contestshipping fan:** I think you're going to regret saying that you love where this is headed, since it is mostly a downward slide for Yue from here on out. She's getting slighted again and the upcoming war will only make it worse.

As for Rin, well, you'll have to wait for that.

**Rocketshipping fan:** ...Damn. Well, it was obvious that she'd try to hunt him down, just not for the reasons you were probably thinking of.

**Super Saiyan Sakura Haruno:** Hinata didn't die because, despite her having even less screen time and interaction with Naruto than Ino, she is a 'main supporting character.' I know of a few manga/anime that have main supporting females that are stalkers, but they are generally comedies. As for Neji dying, it was just for dramatic effect and to show that he had changed since his introduction. As if seeing him do a 'nice guy pose' in Tenten's memories wasn't enough...

**NaruSaku fan 100:** Sakura's sole purpose now is to draw attention to danger, Naruto's new abilities and a liability on the battlefield. As for Naruto's 'healing ability,' I see it as more of a 'time reversal' or 'forced regeneration' ability. It isn't true healing, just something similar to it. Makes you wonder what 'awe inspiring' powers Sasuke has in his left hand.

I'm thinking of trapping Sakura in the Mugen Tsukuyomi, but it will be broken because of a flaw that I noticed in the jutsu.

As for what happens to the poor hanyō, you seem to realize that things are about to go from bad to worse for her. Just read on and see how I, as TV Tropes would say, break the cutie.

**Sakura fan 55:** Ooh, a redheaded stepchild. Well, that's what I jokingly call trouble making red/orange furred cats. My friend had one called Maddison, and the little kitten completely DESTROYED his room when left alone for three hours. She tore his curtains apart, ripped his chair up, turned every scrap of paper into confetti and wound up pulling down all the clothes he had hanging up in his closet, but seeing her curled up in the middle of that disaster zone, snuggled up in a pile of his shirts, he just 'awwed' and made it a point to get her some toys to play with.

I will give you a spoiler: Sakura will stop being such a tsundere within five chapters.

**thedarkpokemaster:** Yuriko is nowhere near done being a being composed of chakra and lust, mostly the former. She will keep appearing, along with Tokki and Yu-sensei.


	36. Ruinous Power

Chapter 36: Ruinous Power

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters of said series. Kazeneko/Ruuko Yue is mine!**

_[A few weeks after Yue's escape]_

Suigetsu got to the meeting spot and was surprised to find none other than Manda there, glaring down at a black and red robed individual.

"You... You smell familiar..." the great snake muttered.

"You have almost completed the task I have summoned you for, Manda, now spit up that which I forced you to swallow," the robed stranger ordered.

"You dare order me!?" the snake hissed, "I'll eat you whole, table scrap!"

Numerous black snakes emerged from the man's hooded robes, a poison mist flowing from their mouths. "Try it, this miasma will kill even the likes of you in short order," the man challenged.

The snake knew better than to take the bait. While he was the greatest of all snakes, and therefor immune to most poisons, something about that mist bothered him. He figured out why when the grass about the man's feet started to die rapidly, the ground cracking as it became infertile. "Tssss! You win this time bastard, but I'll crush you if I find you unworthy later!" Manda said, then spat up a small person, "Orochimaru's little toy... Keh! I don't give a damn, just make sure there is something for me to eat next time aside from an exploding freak show and this disgusting brat!" The snake vanished in a large plume of smoke.

"Who the hell are you?" Suigetsu demanded, holding Aka Kubikirihōchō in two hands. The damn sword was heavy, much heavier than it looked. He needed to use a bit of water to strengthen his arms just to hold it.

Karin and Jūgo arrived, the redhead clearly worried. "Sasuke!" she practically screamed as the Uchiha started waking up.

"Ahhhh. All my old toys have arrived," the man stated as they gathered up.

"Who is this?" Jūgo asked, though he felt a shiver of fear run up his spine.

Karin sensed the man's chakra and it felt like... Her eyes widened. _'It can't be!'_

The man lifted his head, his bandaged face coming into view, his gold eyes glittering. "Jūgo, Suigetsu, Sasuke-kun and even Karin, I'm hurt that you forgot about me already..."

"Orochimaru?!" Sasuke gasped, unable to believe his own eyes. Hadn't he taken in the man's soul and power into himself? How...how was this possible!?

"As much as I'd like to stay and play with my future meal, I have things to do, Sasuke-kun. Now you should know that Akatsuki isn't something you go against so easily. I kept you from them for a reason: because you aren't ready yet. Had I not shown up with Manda, that brat Deidara would have killed you for sure. Even your chakra, as strong as it is and with as much as you have, has its limits," Orochimaru explained.

"You kept me from them because you couldn't risk letting your future body get ruined!" Sasuke shouted.

"Kukukuku. Well, that too. As you can see though, Sasuke-kun, you weren't the only one I had prepared," Orochimaru stated as his partially bandaged right arm came out, snakes wrapping around it, "of course, this body is merely temporary until I can get the body I desire more."

"But you have to wait three years, don't you?" Suigetsu asked.

The snake sannin grinned, the bandages around his mouth showing said expression. "That old weakness? I surpassed it when Sasuke-kun tore up my real body. To think it would just take someone nearly killing the true me to perfect my jutsu. I can trade bodies as I will and I can stay in them until they are on the verge of death, if they are strong enough. This body will serve me for a while yet, so there is little reason to view me as an enemy."

"So what is your plan now?" Karin asked.

"I no longer have any servants and I am indebted to Akatsuki, so I guess I'll follow them for the time being. Make no mistake though, I'm still interested in your sharingan, I just don't have the strength to take them at this time," Orochimaru said as he started to sink into the ground, "I'll be back for you later, Sasuke-kun."

_[Uchiha hideout, a few days later]_

Sasuke wasn't worried about his 'team' at all, they were just there to distract anyone who got in the way of his revenge. Besides, it didn't look like that huge guy with the wrapped sword was itching for a fight.

_'Time to finally end it,'_ Sasuke thought as he entered the hideout, going straight to the main chamber.

On one end of the room sat a stone chair, a throne if you will, where the strongest of the clan, the clan's leader sat. Upon it sat a figure, waiting for the young man before them.

"Itachi!" Sasuke shouted.

"What have you seen with your sharingan?" the figure asked.

"Your death," Sasuke replied.

Cracks started to form on the figure, glowing red cracks. "Oh? So you want to kill him, eh?"

Sasuke's eyes widened as the figure changed form, becoming a person he knew and hated. "Kazeneko Yue... What are you doing here?" he asked as he narrowed his eyes in annoyance. Didn't she have something better to do than waste his time?

Yue stayed in the shadow, the red cracks on her body joined by a baleful glowing eye as she shifted her position to one an evil overlord might favor. "I was waiting for you, though I wasn't alone until a little while ago."

"Where's Itachi? That man back there said-" Sasuke started.

"I was bored of waiting for you and I had yet to finish something with Itachi, so I took care of him. He couldn't feel it until it was too late," Yue cut in.

"Where. Is. He?" Sasuke demanded, placing a hand to his sword.

"It doesn't matter where he is, all that matters is you will finally bow to the will of someone other than Itachi or Orochimaru, you will follow MY will!" Yue stated, standing up.

Sasuke stepped back, assuming a combat stance. "I only ever followed my own ideals and beliefs."

"Oh, really? 'Hate and kill me,' that was Itachi. 'Gain all the power you can get,' that was Orochimaru. Where is Sasuke in all that?" Yue asked. She shook her head. "Face it, you no longer exist as a person, just a fallen puppet waiting for a new master to unbind you from your tangled threads."

Sasuke grit his teeth. "I'm nobody's-"

"Even in my current state, why do you move so slowly?" Yue asked, having appeared behind Sasuke.

Both of them swung swords, blocking each other, but Yue kicked at Sasuke, shoving him back. The Uchiha fired off a chidori sharp spear, but Yue countered it with a raikiri coated sword, then pushed to break his weaker ninjutsu apart as she moved forward. Sasuke swung his sword as he stepped back, turning his entire body, swinging a second time to force Yue to remain a small distance from him.

"You've improved your swordsmanship since I last crossed blades with you," Yue complimented. She went on the offensive again, attempting to slice Sasuke apart with a katana. Sasuke either dodged the blows or deflected them.

Sasuke swung his blade hard as he went into a crouch. **"Chidori Nagashi!"**

Yue was caught off guard, getting hit by the full charge. While it wasn't enough to kill her, it created an opening that lasted long enough.

Slice!

Sasuke forced Yue to the ground, his blade punched through her body just under her heart. "Now tell me where he is!" Sasuke hissed.

"With such a pitiful performance? I'm not entertained in the least."

Sasuke looked over, seeing Yue on the throne still. He only just realized that the Yue he had been fighting wasn't covered in glowing cracks. "Sharingan genjutsu..." he muttered as the 'Yue' his blade pierced blurred away.

"After attempting at such a bold declaration of not being someone's plaything, you become just that. How does it feel to waste chakra on air?" Yue asked as she stood up, starting to walk up to the Uchiha.

Sasuke sliced her head off from the side as the image of him fell into a pile of snakes. "I'll find him, I don't-"

"To fall for it twice in a row, you must be feeling pathetic."

Sasuke looked back to the throne, seeing Yue still sitting there. She had covered up her left eye with bandages, but the one sharingan was enough.

"To think you of all people would be able to use genjutsu..." Sasuke muttered.

"Itachi taught me, before and after the massacre. Didn't you ever wonder why I called him senpai? It wasn't because he was my senior in Akatsuki, it was because he taught me ninjutsu, one of the few people who let me **learn** ninjutsu rather than leave me to mimic it with half awoken sharingan, and he taught me how to use my sharingan properly back when I was in the academy, though I refused to use it for the longest time after I realized that the burning pain in my eyes was a dōjutsu. I can only use genjutsu with the sharingan, and nowhere near his level. Well, obviously it's enough for the likes of you," Yue explained.

"You..." Sasuke muttered.

Yue smirked. "I might be part of the reason you two started becoming distant."

"You were that student of his? You must know of the third Uchiha. Tell me who it is!" Sasuke demanded.

Yue remembered how Itachi mentioned that, how there was another Uchiha that she had met, but hadn't met. The man's riddles confused her sometimes, this one being a constant annoying pain in her mind until recently. "I don't know who he was talking about."

"He must have mentioned something to you if he trained you!" Sasuke insisted.

Yue frowned. "My 'master,' not Itachi, he mentioned a name once, another survivor that Itachi mentioned," Yue said.

"Tell me," Sasuke ordered.

"Why would I do that?" Yue asked.

"Because after I'm done with you, Itachi is dead and then that last bastard will perish as well," Sasuke stated.

"Hmm. You tell the most interesting jokes," Yue said with a half grin.

Sasuke swung his sword to point at her face. "Who is he?"

"Uchiha Madara, is the name I heard," Yue muttered.

Sasuke lowered his sword. "You're insane, he's long since dead. Now do you mind facing me in real combat, or are you still afraid of my eyes?"

The real Yue came out of a shadow, her sharingan glowing at an intensity lower than the wounds on her body. "I did wait for my powers to grow to their fullest, their most vicious. The pain I'm suffering from my burden, I'll let you feel the agony of having a great power, but not being able to save anything at all with it. I'll show you the pain of a real curse."

Sasuke noticed that this was the real Yue, but the glowing cracks disturbed him. "What is happening to you, hanyō?"

Yue lifted her arm to watch a crack form, then close, then another one formed in its place, small amounts of heated blood escaping each wound. "Yondaime-sama was right to seal my yōki off. My body, due to my inexperience with such a tremendous power, can't handle it and breaks down if I don't vent my demonic energies every once in a while. As a child, I would have exploded and taken part of a block back in Konoha with me if I wasn't partially sealed. Ironic really, my yōki is destroying and healing me at the same time. The pain of the power, the pain of being torn apart, the pain of forced regeneration, I now know why Pain, my master in ninjutsu, chose to train me, other than me having the Onmyōton like him."

Sasuke frowned "Pain?"

Yue shook her head. "Enough already. Unless you want to pathetically die in an explosion of demonic power, you'll have to beat the answers out of me. Draw out my chakra, drain my demonic might, prove to me that you're an avenger, a genius, the one who obtained the title of Elite Rookie. Do all of that and I'll lead you to Itachi and be the witness to your revenge. I may even join your team and assist you in your goals, no matter how twisted they are. Anything you will, it will happen no matter who I have to kill or what I have to destroy."

Sasuke charged forward with a quick slash, but Yue blocked it with her sword, then shoved him back. Their swords flashed forward, becoming blurs as they chained rapid strikes at each other, attempting to slip through their opposite's guard, but to no avail.

Yue broke a sword lock with a hard slash, the air shimmering as it moved forward. Sasuke leapt back, watching the ground rip apart where the air distorted. Luckily, it only went a half meter.

_'So she can extend the length of her attacks with an unknown jutsu, probably one of those 'onmyōton' she has access to. I'd say we're almost even in arm speed, her being slightly faster than me. Her swordsmanship is far above mine, but she is hampered due to her disabled left side. I'd take advantage of that, but Orochimaru told me Ruuko don't rely on their eyes or ears for their sword fighting, but the fighter's sixth sense. With her mangekyō active, she's much faster than me in terms of ground speed. I've seen her seal before, but I don't want to rely on mine so soon. Maybe I should use that now,'_ Sasuke thought to himself as he retreated to give himself room.

When Sasuke was far back enough, he unleashed snakes, directing them to attack Yue. The girl responded by backing up slightly, swinging her sword so it either beheaded the snakes or caused massive damage to them with that distortion ability. She released her sword near the end of her swing, letting it stick into the ground next to her as she smirked.

_'What is she-'_ Sasuke started to think, but then started dodging as she flung handfuls of kunai at him. It annoyed him that she could still throw so quickly and so well in spite of not having the use of her dominant arm. He got an opening and returned fire, but she deflected his attack with the three kunai in her hand, then threw them at him.

Sasuke sliced the kunai down with his sword, then stabbed an electrical blade at Yue. She deflected it with her raikiri coated left hand, retrieved and swung her sword, cleaving the empty lightning with her lightning coated sword. Sasuke moved forward, swiping at the girl with his sword, attempting to kill her, but she blocked it with her own sword and, once more, the two were trying and failing to hit one another with blindingly fast sword attacks.

"Annoying!" Sasuke snapped as he delivered a few hard strikes in succession, trying to push as much shock into her arm so she couldn't defend properly. When she stepped back to avoid a strike, Sasuke wheeled around and swung his sword at the left side of her head.

CLANG!

"What!?" Sasuke gasped.

Yue glared at the Uchiha, a smirk on her face. "What? You think I wouldn't ever use my left arm against a physical attack again? The muscles are weak, but my arm is still there, dumbass!"

Sasuke leapt back to escape Yue's sword, but she caught his shirt and put a decent tear in it. _'The little bitch wore armor on her left arm. Even without the strength to strike, she still has the strength to lift her arm with that metal on it, allowing her to block with it.'_

Yue swung her sword again, throwing off that nearly invisible destructive blade jutsu of hers, forcing Sasuke back again. She glared at him and, to Sasuke's horror, her right mangekyō started to revolve as bloody tears started to well up from said eye.

"Shit!" Sasuke grunted, flying through the seals as fast as his hands would allow, using as much chakra as he could safely spare. He hoped to deflect her attack, not overcome it.

"**Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu!"**

"**Amaterasu..."**

The fireball and the black flames met and, as one would expect from the 'strongest' katon in existence, Sasuke's fireball was easily consumed and he was forced to jump away to escape the black flame's clutches, though it caught on his over shirt a bit. Sasuke discarded the white shirt that Orochimaru had provided for him. Surprisingly, it didn't bother Sasuke much as he caught sight of the Uchiha symbol burning away.

"Why did you dodge?!" Yue shouted, going through some hand seals, ones she hadn't used since her academy days. **"Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu!"**

Sasuke dodged the attack, then primed a chidori. He never thought that Yue would be this strong. Well, she did claim to have incapacitated Itachi, so she had to at least have enough power to-

"-hit him with a strong enough attack to knock him out while his back was turned? Do I seem that petty to you, Sasuke?" Yue asked.

Sasuke realized that, just like Kakashi, Yue had actually tricked him into thinking what she wanted him to think with a simple application of sharingan genjutsu. He broke the 'connection' between their sharingan, freeing him of any lingering jutsu she may have cast on him. _'I never learned how to connect and interact with other sharingan, but she has, allowing her to do things I know nothing about. I have to be wary of her eye and avoid looking directly at her sharingan, or else she reconnect them again.'_

Yue flinched, the cracks in her body glowing intensely for a moment before they calmed down again. "You haven't even made me use my demonic energy once yet. You're even more pathetic than I thought possible. I had to unlock my demonic powers to even hope to be able to match Naruto or Itachi, but you can't even produce a power great enough to warrant my current state. You are nothing more than-"

"Don't say it..." Sasuke muttered to himself. It was the one phrase he hated and feared the most.

"-a bitter disappointment. You have a lot of chakra, some good fire and lightning jutsu, but other than that, you're an average shinobi, unworthy of being called a genius or being declared an S-rank missing-nin," Yue finished.

Sasuke felt his rage increasing to levels he thought only Itachi and, more recently, Naruto could bring. "I once told Orochimaru that I couldn't bring my full power, my rage to bear against a random opponent, that I couldn't kill them if they weren't Itachi or Naruto. Orochimaru proved me wrong, like you did just now."

"Struck a nerve? As if I can fear a snake that drags itself across the earth on its belly," Yue said.

Sasuke glared at the girl. "I'll kill you here and now, Kazeneko Yue!" He charged forward, swinging his chidori coated sword at Yue's body, aiming for any place that would result in death if his attacks landed. Yue dodged them, but Sasuke noted that Yue's dodges were closer than before. _'Using Amaterasu appears to have a drawback. That will be good to know for when I face Itachi after this.'_

Yue was having a difficult time seeing properly. She was losing more vision every time she activated Amaterasu or Tsukuyomi, 'losing her light' as Itachi or Shisui would say. Thankfully just using the dōjutsu didn't eat away at her sight.

"**Haretsu!"** Yue shouted as she thrust her left arm forward, unleashing a concussive blast of lightning and chakra that struck the Uchiha, throwing him into the throne with enough force to shatter it into rubble. Thankfully, Yue's vision returned to normal as the chakra flow to her sharingan stabilized.

Both of them were tired, having either dealt out draining attacks, taken harsh blows or both. Zetsu rather enjoyed watching, though he would have preferred it if Itachi was fighting Sasuke.

Yue suddenly snorted a bit. Some dust from the destroyed throne had gotten into her nose and a sneeze was coming on.

_'...What a horrible time to sneeze,'_ White Zetsu thought as his black counterpart wondered how Sasuke would kill the girl whose chakra smelled horrible.

Sasuke moved forward, knowing that Yue couldn't properly retaliate or defend herself, aiming for her neck with his sword.

"HIKCHI!"

Zetsu, both of them, were almost as shocked as Sasuke was, who back peddled to get away from Yue. Why did he do that? It was because Yue's sneeze was accompanied by **fire!**

Yue rubbed at her nose. "Thab's neber...habened befwore..."

"Practice some chakra control!" Sasuke shouted, slightly scared. He checked his eyebrows, thankful to find them unsinged.

"That wasn't ninjutsu, brat," Yue grumbled. _'So I don't have to use chakra for fire. Good to know. Now I need to learn how to use it. First, kick Sasuke's ass. Second, drop him on Konoha's door step. Three, master new fire ability. Four, unknown. Five, profit. Wait, where did that last one come from!?'_

Sasuke decided it was time to crush this idiot cat. He had been saving this for Itachi, but he didn't want to be beaten and thrown to Konoha.

Yue would have rushed forward, but she felt intense pain as she hit her limits, the cracks in her skin glowing brightly. "Grrr! Dammit, I hate this part..." That asshole Deidara loved it though...Explosion freak...

"Wha-" Sasuke started, then he got the feeling that he should run, and quickly. Sasuke turned and bolted up the stairs at his top speed, rushing up two floors when-

"**Kōhai!"**

BOOM!

Sasuke was thrown forward, smashing into a wall as a powerful shock wave hit him. It took him a brief moment to recover, which was enough for him to start scrambling up the stairs, trying to avoid the dust cloud that rolled into the stairway to chase him.

The Uchiha eventually emerged from the sulfur smelling hell of darkness, finding himself on the roof of the hideout, watching smoke waft out of the various points it could escape from through the shattered roof. After coughing for a minute, he looked around, trying to see if he could at least sense Yue.

Her chakra was gone.

"Damn hanyō blew herself up... What the hell was that jutsu? Did that bomb freak help her make it?" the young swordsman mused.

A figure burst from the smoke, a kunai in their hand aimed at Sasuke's shoulder, The Uchiha blocked the strike and shoved them back, shocked to see that it was Yue who attacked him.

"How did you survive exploding?" Sasuke demanded.

"I've 'blown up' like that three times since I broke the seals on my yōki. It might harm me, but it won't kill me. After overloading, my body rapidly heals the damage," Yue explained, drawing Yin, "let's end this, brat."

Yue's smaller and lighter sword would, normally, be unable to stand up to Sasuke's sword of Kusanagi, but Yue's swords, Yin and Yang, were products of the Red Anvil that only the Sisters could ever forge blades on, so they was beyond the level of any normal steel blade. Despite its incredible construction, Sasuke's sword was just a well tempered chakra steel sword that wouldn't break to any inferior sword. Yin and Yang, though, would never break to any blade, not even to each other.

Yue swung her sword, pushing forward as she did so, blasting Sasuke back as he blocked the attack. He attempted to move forward when she slowed, but Yin came down with a vengeance and the hit Sasuke's sword took did something he hoped would never happen: the weapon screeched and rattled from the impact, a sign that it was reaching its limits.

"Damn!" Sasuke grunted as he moved back, sheathing his sword. If she could snap his sword, he'd lose a lot of his offensive power. Once more, Sasuke was forced to break out something he had been saving for Itachi: his sealed arsenal. Sasuke unleashed his shuriken, not too shocked when Yue batted them out of the air. Sasuke increased the amount of weapons and, sadly, Yue deflected them by creating clones and arming them with some of her other blades.

"Why won't you die?!" Sasuke roared as he flung a few more, then found himself out of shuriken.

Yue's clones dispersed, the swords vanishing before they even hit the ground. "You're too weak to kill me. You are too inferior to me."

"I'm a genius!" Sasuke shouted.

Yue cricked her neck as the air warped around her left hand, an object that clearly wasn't a real weapon appearing in her grasp. "Funny, ne?"

Sasuke was staring at a silver kunai with three prongs on it, a replica of the ones used by the Yondaime. This kunai was significant because it was only held by one type of person. "You were Elite Rookie?"

"A genius, a prodigy, a ninja without peer that only comes along once every century. People used those words to describe the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato-sama. I received similar praise from very few people, in spite of my heritage, when I graduated the academy a year ahead of schedule, though my theory scores were abysmal. A kunoichi who wields lightning as if she were a storm goddess, a youth who masters chūnin level jutsu with ease, the greatest kenjutsu practitioner to graduate Konoha's ninja academy since Ruuko Nozomu, my father," Yue said as she warped the kunai away, "but those words mean nothing at all once you leave the academy."

Sasuke frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Namikaze-sama was praised as a genius, but even he ran into foes who matched him, or even exceeded his power, and these people weren't geniuses, just people who worked hard at what they had or were interested in. Kakashi, a genius, is barely able to keep up with a ninja who only uses summoning jutsu and taijutsu, Guy. You were praised as a genius, but you struggled against many foes that were of chūnin level power. Neji lost to Naruto, the former a genius, the latter a three time failure. I also struggled against many foes despite the praise my skills received. In fact, I ran into people who were able to completely avoid or overpower my lightning with ease," Yue said, then looked at Sasuke, "genius, clan and prodigy only exist in the classroom. Once school is out, it is time to leave it all behind you. A genius can become weak and a loser can become a legend, that's just how the world is."

"So what are you saying?" Sasuke asked, not liking the direction this was going.

"In short? You, me, anyone who was praised because of a pathetic school title, kekkei genkai or clan pride are nobodies in this world. You mean nothing at all in the grand scheme of things, and it would be best to accept that and move on. Those words don't make you a legend or even noteworthy, it is what you learn and do as you grow that defines you to the world and history," Yue explained.

"Clan pride? It isn't pride that fills me when I state that I'm an Uchiha, it is the knowledge that I AM superior to others," Sasuke said.

"Then what do you fight for?" Yue asked.

"Revenge," Sasuke answered.

"And that is why you are a nobody," Yue finished.

"And what do you fight for? Ino?" Sasuke asked. When Yue remained silent, but gave him a sour look, he smirked. "Even after all this time, you can STILL fight because you love her?"

"At least I have something to fight for, even if I get nothing more than the satisfaction of knowing she's alive and happy. Your revenge is empty because the Uchiha clan will be extinct if you keep this up," Yue countered.

Sasuke snorted. "More talk of bonds...of love. Pathetic."

"My bonds are tarnished due to me being a missing-nin, just the way I need them to be. I can protect them from here and when I die, it will be for 'the good of the world,' so they will accept it more easily and do the best thing they could ever do: forget that I ever existed in the first place," Yue stated, her chakra becoming visible to anyone, not just those with dōjutsu. It seemed to have become wilder, deeper and darker than before.

Sasuke decided that he needed to do this right, and make sure to kill Yue with it. He'd have to wait til another day to kill Itachi, but at least there would be one less person in the way. First, he'd have to force her into attacking him.

Yue watched as Sasuke activated the seals he had drawn onto her arms, unsealing something else from his arsenal. When a pair of fūma shuriken appeared, Yue frowned and sheathed her sword. Sasuke flung one of the oversized shuriken at Yue's chest. Dodging over was stupid due to the second shuriken Sasuke had, so Yue ducked under it, letting the spinning blades slice her hair short. She was quite surprised at the one that was low enough to clip her feet off, but Yue used a burst of chakra to throw herself to the side, avoiding both weapons. As she moved, she noticed a barely visible glint and threw a pair of kunai, but only managed to snap one of the wires that Sasuke had used so that he could manipulate the weapons after he threw them.

"That's an old technique! You'll need something new to defeat me!" Yue declared as she sheathed her sword again.

Sasuke tried to swing the still spinning shuriken at Yue, but she quickly summoned her own fūma shuriken and flung it at him after spinning once with it in hand, adding considerable centrifugal force and speed to it. Sasuke jumped away so it flew by his right side, then his eyes picked up on something that made him panic.

Explosive tags wrapped around most of the weapon.

BOOM!

Razor shrapnel flew all over the place, some bouncing off a pair of large, shields Yue brought out to defend herself. After the sound faded and Yue was certain the structure wouldn't collapse under her weight, Yue returned the shields to her personal dimension and looked at the result of her attack. She was happy that she could shove the normally arm mounted shields into the ground, or summon them so they were already dug into the ground, to make a stronger defense. With her left arm in its current condition, she wouldn't be able to properly use traditional shields or even the ones she had just used.

The roof had a rather sizable hole in it, fragments of steel sticking out of it all over the place. Anybody that didn't have a pair of heavy steel shields or a well developed Susanoo would have been shredded apart.

Yue looked around for a bit, then checked a bit forward from where she was, on the other side of the wrecked roof. There he was, though he was in some seriously horrible condition. Sasuke had obviously tried to defend or replace himself with snakes, but them and their summoner were pinned to the wall with numerous shards of steel. Just looking at the teen told the assassin that Sasuke was either dead or soon would be. She made her way over.

Yue drew a kunai, aiming for the side of Sasuke's neck. "I'm not merciless. I'll end your suffering." The kunai started to arc downward.

"**Katon: Gōryūka no Jutsu!"**

Yue quickly jumped back numerous times, taking full advantage of her natural acrobatic abilities to escape the giant dragon head shaped flames. She was forced to jump back a few more times, making sure that the weakened roof wouldn't drop her. Once it was over, Yue walked over to the new edge, carefully looking down to see an exhausted Sasuke, her mangekyō showing her that he was pretty much done.

"Blind firing a jutsu, that's just like you," Yue commented.

"Don't think it's over just yet," Sasuke grunted.

Yue chuckled a bit. "Stop kidding yourself. Even though my eyes are inferior as regular sharingan, as mangekyō, they're just like any Uchiha's. I can see that you barely have any chakra left at all."

Sasuke wouldn't deny that, but she was wrong if she thought he had blind fired those jutsu. "Amaterasu is the only katon that cannot be avoided."

Yue wanted to point out that one could evade Amaterasu, but a loud boom caught her attention, making her look up at the growing storm overhead, rain starting to fall from the sky.

Sasuke stood up, seeing that he had trapped Yue perfectly. He got to the highest possible point and smirked down at his opponent. "How ironic that this jutsu is the power of lighting, a thing most people view as Kami's power. You are about to be judged by my 'Kirin,' hanyō."

Yue realized what Sasuke was planning as his hand rose up, lightning from the storm connecting to it as large bolts of lightning danced in the clouds.

"I'll kill anyone who defies or denies me. **Kirin!**" Sasuke declared, dropping his hand.

CRAAAACK!

The lightning blast was huge, the largest single bolt of lightning ever produced, draining the entire storm of its power in one burst. The entire roof collapsed, most of the structure being badly compromised from the previous attacks.

Sasuke staggered onto his feet, his sharingan shutting down to preserve what little chakra he had left. "That... That was harder than I thought. It killed something that is only half human, so it should be enough for Itachi's demise."

"Don't...Don't write me off just yet..."

Sasuke reflexively activated his curse seal, unable to believe that she was still alive. _'She didn't have the time to cast genjutsu or replace herself, so how?!'_

Rubble was shoved aside as Yue stood up, very little damage showing on what could be seen so far.

_'What is this? She shouldn't have a power strong enough to defend against such a jutsu in her current state!'_ White Zetsu thought to himself. His black half was silent, but curious.

"If I weren't a Ruuko, if I weren't so strong in raiton, I would be dead. I take it back, you CAN draw out my powers, but you'll suffer now, Uchiha!" Yue declared as her hair started to spark, standing up slightly as she stood all the way up, the edges of the slave seal on her face taking on a 'shocked' appearance as her mangekyō briefly spun and flashed. Even her jacket's ragged ends took on a bolt-like form.

"_**What the hell..."**_ Sasuke muttered to himself, unable to believe what he was seeing.

"**Onmyōton: Raijin no Ude,"** Yue said as she lay her left hand on the full silver gauntlet on her right arm. Short claws adorned the ends of the fingers, the metal being free of manufacturing marks such as seams and bolts. It was almost like the gauntlet formed from nothing at all, growing onto her arm out of nowhere. It went up to just a bit below her shoulder, the part on her bicep being much lighter, but still made from what looked like pure silver. The whole thing was glowing slightly, almost like the metal itself was luminous.

"_**How did you survive that jutsu? It should have killed you!"**_ Sasuke shouted.

"This gauntlet is unique among my reimyō buki. They grant me the power to use the element they are formed from, at the cost of rather troublesome effect and increased chakra drain. This one, the Lightning God's Arm, it's a little different from the others, which only give me access to elemental jutsu related to them and a slight resistance to said element. The Lightning God's Arm allows me to convert even pure lightning into chakra for me, or vice versa. Do you know what that means, Sasuke?" Yue asked.

"_**My Kirin didn't kill you, it..."**_ He didn't want to finish what he was going to say.

"-Fueled my next jutsu, Sasuke. I thank you for that, and for falling into **my** trap," Yue said.

"_**You're trap?!"**_ Sasuke shouted.

"You attempted to use a jutsu back when Naruto first found you. I was there, remember? My mangekyō showed me that you were going to use a katon, but you kept a good portion of your chakra in reserve that you started to access when you lifted your hand. I figured you were going to do something like an ultimate attack to defeat Itachi, I just had to figure out which element it was. When you let me spread my Amaterasu around without fighting back, I became suspicious, then I knew that the fire wasn't the attack when you used those dragon fireballs, since most weren't even aimed at me. I just waited to make sure it was a raiton before I activated my defense," Yue explained.

Sasuke frowned as he dropped onto his knees. _**"What are you waiting for? Kill me now."**_ The moment she was close enough, he'd kill her with his snakes. Orochimaru's power was useful and Sasuke was happy he had absorbed the man's powers.

Yue grinned. "Fine, I'll return the favor and kill you with my fastest raiton, one that the few people I've used it against were unable to escape."

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock. _'What? She's going to...'_

Yue held out her left hand, lightning sparking down to her palm and gathering, the charge rising more and more with each passing second. It was fearsome, surpassing the power of the Kirin after less than a minute.

"**Raikiri Ka: Arashi Hibana,"** Yue said as the charge seemed to settle, becoming a luminous mist that surrounded her left hand. The armor on her other arm faded away.

Sasuke decided that he was going to take advantage of her impaired vision and attack her left side, but Yue lazily swung her hand and he was afflicted with incredible pain. When he glanced back, he noticed most of his remaining wing was gone now. _**"It will take more than that to stop me!"**_ Sasuke shouted, using some of Orochimaru's chakra to summon snakes in place of the missing limb as more spilled from his clothes.

Yue swung her arm again, the serpents losing their heads with each swing. Sasuke directed more snakes to strike from multiple angles, but Yue wasn't fazed and she calmly sliced them to ribbons with nothing more than a few sweeps of her hand.

Sasuke stopped, feeling his chakra hit the lowest possible point it safely could. _**"H**_ow?" he asked as the seal failed, leaving him gasping from exhaustion.

Yue swung her arm again, one of the walls being cleanly sliced. She then held her hand up in an odd position, almost like-

Crackle...Crackle...Crackle...

Sasuke couldn't believe his eyes as a long sword phased into existence, looking less like lightning and more like pure, surging light. And the length, it had to be fifteen feet long. It was an odd shade of pinkish purple, making it kind of ridiculous to look at.

"What is that? Lightning sword?" Sasuke asked.

"A step above it. This is the most powerful form of cutting electricity can manage: a plasma arc. I can cut through near anything with this arc blade, and I haven't even properly mastered it yet," Yue admitted, lowering the blade while shortening it, allowing the tip to point at Sasuke from six feet away. She drew it back into its standby form, not liking the fact that she was subtracting so much energy from the total charge of the jutsu. "I'm going to savor this. I think I'll vaporize you, one centimeter at a time, starting from the tips of your toes until I get to your neck. I think Itachi will like to have your eyes, so that he can save his vision from fading away. I'm no Uchiha, but I can rip them out of your skull as you die."

Sasuke, in a panic, flung his last kunai with every explosive tag he had on it at Yue, but she jabbed her hand forward, a wave of plasma being pushed forward, literally bouncing the explosions off it as Yue kept moving. Sasuke, in a last ditch effort, tried to draw his sword, but a thin ribbon of lightning punched forward from her fingertip in an instant, a hissing sound accompanying it. Sasuke looked to his arm as the extremely thin blade pulled back, a cauterized wound, about half an inch long, was left behind on his forearm, passing through said part of his arm while numbing it.

Yue advanced on Sasuke, an arc blade extending to two feet from her hand. "You don't need eyes, legs or arms where you're going," she said as she lifted the blade up, preparing to swing down on Sasuke's right shoulder.

"Kukukuku. I think not..."

"OI! HEEEEY!"

Everyone glared up at the man, Tobi. He was waving his arm like an idiot, probably grinning like one under that mask of his too.

"**TSUGA!"** Kiba roared as he attempted to hit Tobi from above, only for said man to step aside and allow Kiba to daze himself with his own jutsu by smashing into the ground headfirst.

"Uwah! That looks like it hurt! Glad it wasn't me~" Tobi lightly sang.

"Son of a... Used his jutsu on me again..." Kiba muttered.

"No, he dodged you that time," Shino stated.

Kiba groaned at his own blunder. His mother and sister always told him not to go downward with his jutsu, since he'd just bang up his head.

Creak...

A pair of figures appeared next to Tobi, one coming out of the branch itself while the other appeared next to the man in a shunshin.

"Is it done already?" Tobi asked.

The strange being grumbled. "Not really, but close enough for your plan."

The hooded figure sighed. "And after I saved Sasuke-kun from Deidara, he just got stopped by Yue-kun. Lucky for Sasuke-kun, I was there to stop Yue-kun from dismembering him."

"Where is Sasuke?!" Naruto shouted.

The hooded figure smirked under his bandages. "Tsk tsk. Naruto-kun, you've grown to be oh so desperate lately. I heard you were a slow learner, but this is getting ridiculous."

The plant-like being sighed. "Tobi, I wasn't able to locate Itachi and Yue somehow managed to mask her chakra from me after Orochimaru attacked her. It probably didn't help that her chakra was burning all over the place."

"WHAAAAT?! I didn't think she could evade me at all!" Tobi whined, then turned away slightly. "Well, she was a traitorous one from the very beginning, plotting to destroy us from the inside from the very beginning by letting jinchūriki like the Nii Yugito escape, just like Itachi with Naruto here. How troublesome that both of my sharingan users were traitors," He sounded completely different, like he was two people that kept switching again and again.

"Hmph. We should get going or else Naruto-kun will get riled up too much, probably go four tails on us again, or worse," the hooded man said.

"Wait!" Sakura shouted.

The plant being slid back into the tree, vanishing from both view and chakra sensory ability.

"Kukuku. I don't think I need to introduce myself to you again, Naruto-kun and Haruno girl. For the bug brat, Hyūga girl and the mutts, I am Orochimaru, the man who killed the Sandaime and nearly killed Tsunade-hime as well. Next time, she won't be so lucky," the hooded man, Orochimaru stated as he vanished in a shunshin.

"And I... You will learn of my true name later, but feel free to call me 'Tobi' for now," the orange masked man stated, glaring down at the Konoha shinobi with a burning sharingan. He jumped back, disappearing from sight as the air seemed to twist and swallow him whole.

Kakashi jumped onto the tallest tree he could find and started to scan around with his sharingan, stopping when he saw a mass of chakra in the distance. "Hinata! Look to the east!"

Hinata did so and couldn't believe what she saw. "Black flames and lots of chakra is flooding the area."

_'Amaterasu...'_ Kakashi thought to himself. "How far out?"

"Almost ten kilometers," Hinata answered.

"Everyone, follow me!" Kakashi ordered as he led the others towards the battleground.

After getting close to the burning forest, Kiba told them that he smelled Tobi ahead of them along with Sasuke's scent. Curiously, he couldn't smell Yue at all.

"What is that fire?" Hinata asked, feeling cold just looking at the fire. It made no sense, but she felt that touching those flames would doom her to Hell itself.

"I thought Itachi was missing... Could he have started this fire to delay us?" Naruto wondered aloud.

"Yamato!" Kakashi called. The wood user promptly used an earth release to bypass the flames by ripping a trench through the burning forest.

"I'll stay back here in case anyone follows," Yamato stated as he stood at the ready.

Kakashi nodded and signaled to the others, telling them to follow him and be on their guard.

A few moments later, they found the destroyed remains of the Uchiha hideout. Kiba told them right away that he couldn't track Sasuke due to the loss of the scent, but he told them that he had a feeling that Yue was close.

After a minute of searching, Sakura moved some rubble and found Yue's unconscious body, injuries all over her. "Naruto! Kakashi-sensei! I found-"

"Get away from there Sakura!" Kakashi shouted.

"Eh?" the girl gasped.

Everyone scattered as a blade of pure light swung down, cleaving through everything in its path. Standing on the other end of the sword was Yue, panting and looking worse for the wear. The shadow clone Sakura found burst into a cloud of expended chakra.

Sakura was shocked, having been tackled aside by Naruto. She just realized how much bigger than her he was, mostly because she was almost completely hidden under his body.

Naruto stood up, looking at his friend. "Yue! What are you doing?!"

Yue turned her gaze to the blond, her squinting green eye telling Kakashi that she was having difficulty seeing properly. "Final test...But you aren't part of it Naruto..." she said as the mist and arc sword disappeared.

Before Naruto could say anything, Yue clasped her hands together and he felt the weight of his body increase, dropping him to his knees. "What's happening?"

"I used an onmyōton jutsu that allows me to make a person's chakra weigh them down. I just need intimate knowledge of their chakra and I can use it," Yue explained.

"So you made Naruto-kun's chakra heavy?" Hinata asked.

"Not really, I made his _other_ chakra heavy," Yue said, looking to Sakura and Naruto as she said it. She saw that they got the hint.

The others moved closer, but Yue clones came out of the rubble, all of their chakra networks going wild with barely contained chakra.

"Stay back. These clones will explode," Hinata warned.

"Yue! What happened to Sasuke, to Itachi?" Naruto asked, worried about how Yue was acting.

"I beat Sasuke, but Orochimaru stopped me from dealing the final blow and Tobi ran off with him before I recovered. Itachi is incapacitated in a nearby location," Yue said, then looked straight at the medic for the combined teams, "Sakura, you are the only one I'll fight right now."

"What?" Kiba growled.

"Are you planning on killing Sakura now?" Kakashi asked, wondering how far Yue had fallen.

Yue showed genuine surprise. "Do you think I'm a monster? Well, dumb question..." Yue looked to Naruto as she undid the bindings that held her Akatsuki jacket closed. "Outside of the 'barrier,' now!"

Naruto listened because he already had a good idea of what would happen if he didn't or if someone interfered.

"What is the meaning of this?" Sakura asked. If only she could focus the chakra to the Yin seal faster, she'd be sure she could help Naruto bring both Sasuke and Yue back, but it was harder than she expected. Yue sighed, letting her exhaustion show for a moment, then it was gone as she locked her reactivated, dimly glowing sharingan on Sakura. Kakashi noted that the exposed right eye revolved for a moment, glowing slightly brighter, then stopped as Yue stood up fully.

"Sakura, I want to be defeated by my student, and other than Tayuya, you are that student," Yue said.

"W-what? But all you taught me was-" Sakura started.

"I taught you more than anyone else I have met that can willingly raise their fists to me. While I am not responsible for all of your power, I did help in raising it slightly. I want to see what that red clothed girl I helped learn to walk on water can do now. Defeat me, show me that you are no longer that weak little girl, that you are a kunoichi of Konohagakure!" Yue shouted at the end, her chakra blazing with that final shout of challenge. As they watched, it turned to a black so deep it was like looking into a void, the curse seal spreading over Yue's body, the chakra arms coming into existence as ornate lightning marks stretched along her collar bones, dipping down on either side of her sternum to an unknown point under her cropped tank top.

Kiba and Hinata went to assist Sakura, but Naruto held them back. "What are you doing?" Kiba angrily asked. Hinata was speechless due to Naruto holding her shoulder.

"This fight has nothing to do with us. If we jump in, Yue will kill herself, Sakura-chan and as many of us as those explosions will catch," Naruto said, keeping his head down.

"Naruto! Why are you-" Kiba started. Naruto tightened his grip on Kiba and Hinata's shoulders, actually making them wince in pain. Kiba looked at Naruto's face and he was shocked at what he saw. "Naruto... You..."

"I want to go to her side so badly that I feel useless standing here, but the only way I can help her is to believe in her! Sakura-chan isn't weak, she won't let herself lose easily!" Naruto growled, a tremor in his voice as he refused to look anybody in the eye because he was crying at his own uselessness in this situation.

Kakashi felt sorry for Naruto. In a way, Yue's actions were forcing Naruto to confront the harsher side of shinobi. The boy was maturing, but it was a painful and forced process.

Sakura pulled her gloves on, remembering how Tayuya had said that the chakra arms Yue possessed had a good reach and could move like snakes. They didn't have enough power to truly grip a human and hold them, forget throwing them, but a punch from them was almost as painful as when they scratched at you. Yue could also, if she caught a person off guard, deliver a vicious series of punches with those arms. Luckily there was only four of them.

"_**You open up this fight. **__**Show me the light that I'm losing, the light I passed to you **__**three**__** years ago **__**before I started to **__**fall**__**,**__**"**_ Yue offered, getting herself ready for an attack.

**A/N~**

I must apologize for being so lax with releases. To be honest, I've been feeling down lately for some reason. I know I need to buckle down and work on KKIT's next chapter, since I'm set until about chapter 42 for KTD, aside from final checks/edits.

I have a new section that will appear just before the responses, right after my predictions. I'm just going to, well, bounce an idea off of you guys. Let's just say that I've noticed a very, VERY disturbing lack of a specific type of OC, one I think you guys will find amusing.

**-Character Themes-**

Naruto: His World (Zebrahead version) – Zebrahead / Remember the name – Fort Minor

Sasuke: The Stains of Time (Maniac Agenda Mix) – MGR

Sakura: Fire (Extended DRM mix) -SunLoverz

Ino: Get Lucky – Daft Punk (got this idea from Day by Day, a fanfic, and it kinda sticks)

Shikamaru: The Lazy Song – Bruno Mars

Choji: Unknown (can't think of one)

Yue: Light 'em up – Fall Out Boy / Whispers – Eternal Descent

The bath house master: Grabbag – Megatron (or Epinikion's version, whichever works)

Uchiha Madara: Saw Final Theme – Charlie Clouser / A New Horizon – NemesisTheory

Unnamed Villain 1: Archangel – Elena Siegman / XTC – Psychic Lover

Unnamed Villain 2: Final Destination (hafdwn mix) – Ivan Ether

For the record, these two villains hate each other. Don't go asking my why COD music work for the first one, you'll see why later. For the record, I don't like COD either, but the music is good at times. And yes, the bath house master will appear again later, with a name too, and he is a badass.

This list will expand in a later chapter, hopefully, and the themes I chose will make sense later. I'm also willing to listen to suggestions for some character themes. I'll listen to them and see if they do fit better than my own choices. Before anyone asks or mentions it, Choji's song is NOT the Chicken Fat song!

**-A possible request for help-**

I have designed a number of Yue's reimyō buki, but some of the elements are so obscure that I don't know what to do with them. For now, I'll list the elements and the basic shape that the 'weapon' takes. Try and help me fill in the blanks with at least semi-appropriate forms. Before you ask, Yue will not manifest all of them in this fic, but might show all of them off during 'Rise of Mecha-Naruto' and 'Konoha's Third Demon.'

I will warn you now, some of Yue's reimyō buki are from other sources, sources that I'll need to add to the disclaimer later. Of further note, some of Yue's swords, from her rather large collection, are also from other sources.

Fire: Gauntlet (left arm only)

Water: Crossbow

Wind: Greaves

Earth: War Hammer

Lightning: Gauntlet (right arm only)

Blaze: Claymore

Wood: Sword

Ice: Bastard Sword

Steel: Manacles

Magnet: Rings (one on each hand's middle finger)

Boil: ?

Dust: ?

Dark: ? (do not mention a scythe)

Lava: ? (Secret, will be revealed in Rise of Mecha-Naruto)

Storm: ? (leaning towards a composite bow)

Scorch: ? (leaning towards a pair of chakram)

Explosion: ? (I was thinking of shuriken and some kind of holsters for them)

Crystal: ? (leaning towards a shield)

Swift: ? (leaning towards daggers or mounted arm blades)

Yin: Lantern & Chains

Yang: Short Sword & Chains

Yin-Yang: None (This will be explained during the war)

And three more weapons of unknown elements. Two have no shape and the last is a long bladed katana.

**-Preview-**

**Meet your new villainess-**

She wears black clothes, somewhat revealing clothes too, with long, crimson hair making her skin seem almost alabaster in comparison. Her cold blue eyes contain a burning rage that doesn't match their color. Aside from these hints as to who she is, well, you'll have to wait to find out.

**Reimyō Buki Index-**

**Onmyōton: Raijin no Ude** [Yin-yang Release: Lightning God's Arm] – Yue summons silver armor onto her right arm that enhances her affinity for lightning ninjutsu as well as giving her unique abilities. She can fight with electrical strikes or just electrocute a person as she holds them. It is unknown if it has any other abilities at this time, other than absorbing all forms of lightning to empower Yue with usable lightning chakra. It is unknown if this ability applies to senjutsu empowered raiton, though it most likely doesn't.

**Jutsu Index-**

**Haretsu** [Rupture] – A raiton developed by Yue with raikiri and elements of the rasengan being the 'parent jutsu.' Using lightning and chakra, she creates a concussive force of chakra and electricity that can, if used at full power, cause internal organs to rupture inside the body. The only drawbacks to this jutsu are that it temporarily disables the arm that uses it and its short range. At low power, this jutsu can be used to shove opponents back with great force and stun/numb them.

**Raikiri Ka: Arashi Hibana** [Lightning Blade Overload: Storm Brand] – Yue amasses a tremendous charge of lightning to her hand, allowing her to form a plasma blade of variable length and width at will. When in standby form, it appears as a type of luminous mist, though this is really 'exhaust' from the charge surrounding her hand. Most of the time, she creates a 'wire blade' because it subtracts the least from the length of time this jutsu can remain active. Has a time limit of thirty minutes at full charge, but only if it is kept in standby mode. It is unknown if Yue can perform this jutsu without the assistance of her reimyō buki, the Lightning God's Arm.

**Prediction-**

Could it be that Sasuke wants Naruto to kill him, so that there is no chance of Kaguya being brought back? Since Sasuke is an Uchiha with Senju DNA in him, and he has both sharingan and rinnegan, that means it is highly likely that anyone fathered by him or descended from him could also have the rinnegan, allowing them to, potentially, bring Kaguya back by summoning the husk of the Ten Tails. If Sasuke really wanted to start a revolution, he wouldn't have sealed away the tailed beasts, which he had complete control over, and he would have used them to beat Naruto and then kill the Kage. Since we haven't actually heard what he said to the Sage of Six Paths, this is a possibility.

**A new plot bunny has been born-** (run for your lives!)

I've noticed that Naruto has had a ton of OC and non-OC friends. Some were ninja, some were samurai, some were weapon makers, a scant few were criminals, one was Ayame, he's even had Kyūbi (herself) as a childhood friend and I even read a fic where Naruto's childhood friend was Sasuke. (that one was all kinds of screwed up) What I've never, EVER seen was the most iconic type of female friend known to date: the short, childish in attitude and body, rich as all hell, tsundere childhood friend. (that's like an otaku's dream girl there, minus the nekomimi, maid outfit and panty flashes galore) Anyway, I created an OC like that and, as the summary for that unnamed fic states, her favorite accessory is Naruto. (not romantically, at first) She's perfect as an ojou-sama, aside from how she talks, but as a kunoichi, she's okay...ish. She's basically got a more solid foundation than Sakura, but let's face it, Sakura had one of, if not the worst skill set in Part I.

Anyway, comment on the idea if you want. I was just wondering if anyone else noticed the lack of rich, small tsundere girls in Naruto fanfiction.

**-Responses-**

**Yuri-Hime-Chan:** Actually, I'm not basing her raiton off of electrical charge, I'm basing it off of real lightning strikes, which is positive and negative. As I pointed out before, most of the lightning we see is weaker negative lightning, which is what people who normally use raiton are utilizing. Positive lightning is far stronger and, unlike negative lightning, is much more lethal. I've also said that Yue's lightning is at a much higher frequency than most other characters, allowing her to slice through most other raiton. Besides, it has already been pointed out in canon that raiton function off of frequency and the sheer power of the lightning being used.

Besides, Yue has yet to reveal her full potential for manipulating lightning.

**Guest:** No, Rin is not aware of who Naruto's parents were, though she may suspect that Naruto is Minato's son based off looks alone. If anything, she probably didn't know about Kushina, or at least not her relationship with Minato. We don't know exactly when Minato and Kushina started dating, or if he told his team, so there is a high possibility that Team Minato didn't know. It seems, to me at least, that Kakashi only found out about his sensei's relationship with Kushina a bit before the Kyūbi attack, like a couple years.

**Super saiyan Sakura Haruno:** Less fighting and more...well, I don't know how to explain what Yue is doing with her former allies. I guess I'll use the term Yue used in this chapter and call them 'tests.'

**NaruSaku fan 100:** You know, I found it funny that he struggled against Deidara, one of the weaker members of Akatsuki, then went and defeated Danzō, after losing to all the Kage at once, and forced the man to kill himself. It's almost like Sasuke has the Saiyan Disease and gets stronger when beaten.

As for Yue defeating him, it was more or less a draw, since he needed someone to save his sorry emo ass, as usual.

**Rose contestshipping fan88:** My thoughts exactly, well, the part about Sasuke rotting is what I agree with the most. Yue has more pain to suffer before she gets her sweet reward and suffers from what I like to call SRSoD. (Sudden Romance Screen of Death) You know, it happens in some stories when the main character realizes a girl/guy is in love with them and they just freeze up.

Trust me, THAT part will be hilarious! Especially what happens right after her brain freezes!

**Rocketshipping fan:** Yue being smart...more like she lives by her instincts, which have grown sharper. She has knowledge, but she's still not the type to read books/scrolls.

**Sakura fan 55:** It would take a lot of yarn to get Yue going. She prefers crinkly bags and quick moving objects. She has yet to catch the red light...

As for Sakura dropping her tsundere attitude, it is like all the others: she will stop lying to herself about her feelings and admit them. She'll still drop him if he does perverted stuff (that isn't related to the bedroom, HA!) and she will still call him a baka and she will still be the fake prude we all know. She'll be more concerned with Naruto's well being than before and she will stop making Naruto seem like the silver trophy to Sasuke's gold, which she does in canon when she goes after Sasuke in Iron while she really means to protect Naruto from Sasuke by killing the emo shit before he can cut Naruto up. Though, to be fair, almost the ENTIRE CAST does this to Naruto in canon, with only Jiraiya, Obito, Orochimaru, Zetsu, Kabuto and Kaguya being the only ones who view Naruto as being more powerful/more of a threat than Sasuke.

One thing Sakura will not do is call Naruto by that one little suffix that Hinata uses. One of the oneshots I'm working on, 'The -Kun Issue,' explains why Sakura would never call him 'Naruto-kun.' Heck, I don't even have to post it most likely, since it is quite obvious why she wouldn't call him that. (The tip lies with Sai, for those who want to find it)

**Thedarkpokemaster:** Yep, we all know that a naked Sakura would drop Naruto faster than said girl's tsundere empowered punches. As for what I had Yue say about Itachi and Sasuke, it's all true. Sasuke seemed to have it in his head that Itachi wouldn't get stronger, that he would stagnate so Sasuke could catch up. That and, as we all can tell, Itachi was more of a genius than Sasuke ever was. The characters praising his prowess with the sharingan, saying he's better than Itachi, are all just the creator pandering to his favorite character. The fact is that Itachi went further than Sasuke ever could with plain old mangekyō, going further than Sasuke could with full on eternal mangekyō. He also showed more talent with all three regular powers of the mangekyō than Sasuke did, who needed power boosts from Zetsu, Naruto or the addition of Hashirama's DNA that Kabuto gave him to match or exceed Itachi's mastery of those same techniques.

Fact of the matter is, Sasuke is a painfully AVERAGE ninja when you get down to the truth of the matter. Take away his rinnegan, Hashirama's DNA, you've got an Uchiha who would have probably lost to Obito before he was enhanced with Hashirama's DNA, and Obito was apparently a weak Uchiha. Sasuke was only praised as a genius because of his last name, nothing else. It was all a huge load of massive ass kissing.

Yuriko will return, with a PERVEANCE! (perversion + vengeance = Pervgeance aka Yuriko's mind) Let's put it this way, her brain is so dirty that her thoughts make Jiraiya's books look like little kid shows. (remember that Jiraiya was predicted to be a MAN who would be unequaled in perversion, the old toad said nothing about women!)

**Mangaka Shuzen:** As long as you read the chapters, it's all good. I've also been striving for quality, so I'm happy to hear that I've improved.

As for Yue VS other OCs, Yue was always meant to be one who can bring out huge amounts of power, but lost, even becoming almost impotent later on in the story. I never do like reading stories with an OC who has power that can rival levels equal to that of Madara while he was a jinchūriki, or even worse, one of the dozens upon dozens of stories involving jinchūriki OCs who have the 'Ten-Tailed Wolf' sealed inside of themselves. Yue can rise above most of the characters, which isn't hard considering most of them are quite weak/average, only to fail against stronger foes, or becoming a mere punching bag to a rare few later on.

Like I pointed out a long, long time ago: my OCs are powerful on the battlefield, or many of them are, but all of them are weaklings on the battlefield of the mind/emotions. One can wear armor, learn powerful techniques and have incredible power, but none of that means jack shit when you are ostracized, being emotionally/mentally attacked or treated like all the world's problems are your fault. It's a rarely used angle on OCs and I find it adds dynamics to characters that most writers overlook.

Like I pointed out, Yue's true war is far from over. It doesn't help that some powerful foes are appearing on the darkening horizon either.

And Yue isn't the type who would have allowed Naruto and Sakura to glomp her, since she was playing the role of a villainess for the first section of Part II. That, and it would have been rather OOC of them to express themselves like that. The Naruto manga is not a glomping manga, more of a 'you said the wrong thing, BAKA' manga, followed by Naruto being used as a plow after Sakura punched him.

**Sensuto:** I'm actually following Yue more for this particular part because, one, it is all canon for the most part with Naruto and Sakura, meaning I'd just be writing what you'd read in the regular manga and, two, I'm trying a new angle that will be featured during the next big event: Pain's Invasion. That and it allows me to skip all the Sasuke worship from the author. (there is a lot of that in Naruto)


	37. Lost Light

Chapter 37: Lost Light

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, therefor I cannot claim the money it makes**

Sakura threw a number of shuriken as cover, chasing them at a decent clip with her fist held back for a strike. Yue dodged to the side a bit, but not enough and a number of the throwing stars bit into her left arm and side, making her wince as she directed the curse seal arms to rush at Sakura. The medic twisted through the black and red arms, finding it relatively easy, at least when compared to Sasori's attacks.

Yue growled and went through a few hand seals. _**"Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu!"**_ Yue shouted as she spat out a powerful stream of flame, forcing Sakura to retreat a bit. When she saw Sakura back off enough, she decided to use a trick she had very recently learned she could use with her leftover reserves. _**"**__**Katon: Gōka Messhitsu**__**!"**_

A giant blast of flame roared into the sky, dark clouds forming, lightning crackling inside them with increasing intensity. Everyone wondered if the storm that had been breaking up before was Yue's creation or if someone else had made it. Whoever did it, they were quite innovative.

"_**I hate to do this, especially when I'm so badly drained and I need every bit of myself I have left, but I have no choice in the matter!"**_ Yue declared as she focused her chakra, lightning crackling on her body, forming onto her arm. **_"Onmyoton: Raijin no Ude!"_** The same gauntlet Yue had used to defend against Sasuke's Kirin reformed on Yue's arm from the lightning, though it wasn't glowing this time. Yue used a classic defensive jutsu she rather favored to complete her plan, lifting her armored hand overhead. _**"Raiton: Hiraishin!"**_

With Yue electrified, the storm unleashed a number of lightning bolts on her, striking at her armored hand, each bolt making the gauntlet glow brighter and brighter. _'What is she planning?'_ Kakashi wondered to himself, confused as to the function of the 'weapon' Yue had summoned.

Yue lowered her hand as the thunderstorm started to break up again. As they watched, Yue's hair started to spike up, the ragged ends of her jacket becoming bolt-like. Even her curse seal started to alter, the arms taking on a somewhat... electrocuted appearance. _**"The power of lightning and the curse seal. Does a medic have the strength to defeat the power of the Heavens and Fate?"**_ Yue asked.

"Sakura! Despite Yue-san's appearance, she isn't electrified! Her chakra is completely kneaded though!" Hinata called.

"Hinata's right, Yue's chakra appears to be primed solely for raiton right now, so be careful and try to avoid striking from the front!" Kakashi instructed.

Sakura drew more throwing weapons and flung a barrage at the young woman, lightly wounding her again with a number of them. The last few had practice explosive tags on them, ones Sakura had made in case she had to fight Sasuke, so the clouds were filled with chakra and blinded the hanyō's sharingan.

Yue growled and scanned around, cursing the blue blur all around her. She only realized what Sakura was planning when the girl's fist was right next to her head. The missing-nin barely got the chakra arms up in time to soften the blow, eating away at the chakra in Sakura's arm, but it was still enough to make her soar a few feet away. Yue used her right arm to perform a rough handspring, landing so she faced to where Sakura had been last, her feet digging into the ground until her slide stopped. She felt some heat from her ears on one side, a sign that the blow had caused her ears to bleed a bit.

"_**Enough games!"**_ Yue shouted as she drew kunai and shuriken with her right hand and all her chakra arms. Yue then flung enough electrified kunai to make a three person ANBU team proud, practically tearing the cloud apart with the amount of weapons she threw. Within ten seconds, the coat was bare of its hidden arsenal of small weapons. _**"This is damn useless now!"**_ Yue roared as she flung the coat off.

Sakura was going to rush in for a quick strike, but then something happened.

THUD!

"Her jacket was weighted?" Kiba muttered as the dust cloud blew away.

Yue stretched her arms, looking over at her left one. It was wrapped in bandages from the second knuckle up to mid bicep, metal plates held onto it by red metal bands to form a crude, sectioned gauntlet. There were some pretty bad looking scars on Yue's exposed fingers, which told of how the rest of her arm looked, and she had the claw scars on her right side. From behind, Kakashi was able to see crisscrossed scars on her lower back that continued up under her shirt. _'Whip scars? Ah. I remember now. What a horrible way to celebrate your twelfth birthday,'_ the man thought to himself. He'd never seen Anko threaten medics with death before that day and he hadn't since.

Yue's curse seal wavered, the arms shifting around on her back as the 'mouth' reappeared. With the seal completely formed, Everyone felt the slight drain on their chakra reserves. _**"**__**This infernal sensation... I hate this power, but I need it, I'm nearly out of chakra and I cannot support Lightning Form with an empty reserve. Now to feed,"**_ Yue muttered.

"What is she saying?" Kiba asked himself.

Yue's arms all came close to each other, fusing into one, then the sole arm blurred out of the ring of explosion clones, seizing a ninja and everyone watched as chakra was dragged into the arm, flowing to Yue.

"Shino-kun!" Hinata shouted as the claw released the Aburame, splitting into the usual four as it was retracted.

"I'm fine... She left me with adequate chakra for travel, but fighting is out," Shino stated. He could tell his insects were greatly confused as to the sudden loss of chakra.

Sakura zipped forward, zigzagging so Yue's chakra arms couldn't track her properly. When in range, she started to strike out at the hanyō, but the chakra arms kept working together to weaken Sakura's blows, either that or Yue used her own arms to defend. The armor on her left arm was just enough to stop the blows, especially if Yue used her right arm to add much needed support to her weakened arm. The good news was that Yue was purely on the defensive, unable to risk attacking. Sakura did learn that the curse seal arms were susceptible to chakra scalpels, the fingers being sliced off when Sakura could risk using the jutsu.

_'Either my curse seal goes down or I stop using my sharingan. I need both or else I can't even fight in my current state. I need to drain another ninja...'_ Yue thought as she shoved Sakura back with a five armed strike. She sent out two chakra arms, aiming for Hinata and Kakashi.

"**Raikiri!"**

"**Shugohakke Rokujūyon Shō!"**

One claw was cut into pieces and the other was just sliced off. Yue pulled the arms back, restoring the claws. She forgot Kakashi was more than likely quick enough to stop her. As for Hinata, what the hell was that? Yue's method of dealing with the Kaiten, would it work on that jutsu? It didn't have the fatal weakness to the famed 'absolute defense' of the Hyūga clan, one that they themselves seemed to ignore in favor of their pride. You didn't ignore such a weakness, you acknowledged it and did your damn best to either compensate for it or remove it. That was why the Hyūga clan was far from the strongest, since they were the only clan in Konoha that didn't accept their weaknesses, just went on and on about them being the 'strongest in Konoha.'

Sakura managed to break through Yue's defenses again, delivering a series of not-so healing chakra infused punches to the young woman's torso and head, hoping to do enough damage that Yue couldn't continue fighting. Unfortunately, each impact felt like Sakura was punching hardened stone, meaning the curse seal also brought up the user's physical resistances.

Yue suddenly vanished with a crackle, appearing a distance away from Sakura. _**"I hate wasting chakra on escaping, but I've got to end this soon or I won't be able to move at all."**_

"Yue! Why are you with Akatsuki?! It just doesn't make any sense!" Sakura shouted.

_'I don't have time for this. Lightning form is chewing up my already drained reserves... I don't want to reveal my trump card just yet, and I highly doubt I can use it after Orochimaru's last stunt...'_ Yue growled as she formed the chakra arms together into one massive, ragged claw. _**"You wouldn't understand anything at all, Sakura. You're normal, you never were mistreated at all."**_

"What? I was BULLIED for three years because of my forehead!" Sakura shouted.

"_**And Naruto probably had three minutes of a 'normal' life before he became the target for Konoha's hatred. I spent my entire ninja career mistrusted, hated and most my accomplishments were stolen from me by people I was paired up to work with. There are chūnin in the village, jōnin who don't deserve their rank because of what they did to other people,"**_ Yue growled, her sharingan blazing with rage, _**"unless you can spend a day in our lives, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO CALL WHAT YOU WENT THROUGH SUFFERING!"**_

Yue swung her left arm, an electrified shock wave roaring at the medic. Sakura managed to evade it, just barely, and looked up in time to see a second blast of electricity coming at her. She dodged this too, but it caught one of her legs and numbed it completely. Before Sakura could even start to do anything, the chakra arms came together as a large claw, smashing into the ground before her, sending her rolling away.

Sakura winced in pain and went to lever herself up, but fell onto her stomach right away. "What? But my chakra-" she stopped, feeling a strange tingling in her arms. _'She let me hit her so I'd take on a hidden electrical charge... Those lightning blasts! They were meant to trigger the shutdown of the nerves in my arms!'_

Yue loomed over Sakura, the claw ready, aiming for Sakura. It reared up, sharpening the fingers into true chakra blades with lightning crackling on them.

_'I can't get out of the way!'_ Sakura thought as she closed her eyes and held her weakened arms up in reflex.

"Sakura-chan!"

….

….

…?

Sakura opened her eyes, wondering why she wasn't torn apart yet. She looked up in time to watch the chakra claw completely break apart, the curse seal receding and Yue's sharingan failing.

"She's almost out of chakra..." Hinata muttered to herself.

Yue stumbled back, panting from her nearly dry reserves. She'd never drained herself this badly before and she was aching now.

Sakura healed her arms and leg, restoring sensation and strength. She stood up, looking to her battered friend. "Yue, you can't fight anymore. Just give up."

Yue glared at Sakura, hating how her vision was so badly blurred without sharingan. She shook her head. "I'm not done..."

"You're finished. Without chakra, you're just really strong. Chakra exhaustion makes it difficult to even stand, so don't strain yourself and quietly give up," Sakura said.

Yue dug her nails into her palm, drawing blood that felt hot to her cool skin, a sign of severe chakra exhaustion. "I don't need my chakra... You never even bothered to find out why Akatsuki kept me around!"

That stopped Sakura. Akatsuki, now that she thought about it, chose members who had specialties of some sort, but Yue's raiton and kekkei tōta probably weren't enough to warrant Akatsuki's notice.

"**Nefirimu!"** Yue roared as transparent red fire enveloped her body, her eye turning a wicked red as the pupil slitted in spite of the sun being behind her.

"Hinata! Wha-what is that?" Kakashi asked, thinking that him not being a born Uchiha was preventing him from seeing the chakra for this new jutsu.

"Her chakra reserves are too low for any decent ninjutsu," the girl stated. She'd never seen anyone who didn't use chakra for any technique that involved non-physical effects. If it were just a regular slash or a special melee maneuver, then no chakra present in the attack would be understandable, but this clearly was something that couldn't be done without some form of power.

Yue took one step forward, then vanished. Sakura was suddenly assailed from multiple angles within seconds, then blown away with a straight punch to her shoulder. Before Sakura could react, she was grabbed and thrown the other way, only to smack into Yue's arm, flipping her in the air once to land on her back.

Sakura coughed, feeling a slight burning pain from the areas she had been struck. She lifted her shoulder into view, seeing that her skin did have an abrasion on it. She lifted herself up slightly, then found herself lifted onto her feet. She looked forward, seeing Yue's glittering red right eye stare into her jade left eye.

"Want to experience it, our agony?" Yue asked.

Whack!

Yue coughed up a bit of blood, slumping slightly. She looked down, seeing Sakura's fist still resting against the base of her ribcage, right where the scar lay. She felt chakra flowing into the wound and it definitely wasn't there to heal it.

Yue looked back into Sakura's eye. "Yeah, I'll show you..."

Sakura was about to point out that Yue couldn't use the sharingan when she released her, letting the battered girl barely keep herself on her own two feet, only to fall to her knees a moment later. Sakura felt her neck grabbed, her body lifted up again so her eyes were locked with Yue's uncovered one, dark green light starting to flicker in her pupil.

"Can you see?" Yue asked as green flames consumed her right arm. The hanyō brought Sakura close enough to whisper something to her as the green flames flowed into Sakura.

"Huh? …..Ah... Ahhhh. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Everyone cringed as Sakura started to scream, a look of abstract horror on her face, tears running down her cheeks, all of this happening in spite of Sakura not being burned by the strange green fire. Nobody moved to help, mostly because of the clones waiting to detonate if anyone did anything other than watch. Naruto was the one who had the hardest time staying still, wanting nothing more than to run in there and save Sakura from whatever it was that Yue was doing to her, but he couldn't.

Sakura stopped screaming, just stared forward at the missing-nin that held her neck. She felt new tears ready to spill from her eyes, especially when she looked over and saw Naruto standing there, hands clenched so tightly that his knuckles looked like they were about to burst.

The clones flinched, then detonated in large, but harmless plumes of expended chakra. The moment that Hinata and Kakashi saw no trick, they ran forward, but Naruto overtook them.

"Sakura-chan!"

Sakura didn't move until Naruto got over to her. "N...Naruto..."

The blond reached out and grabbed Yue's wrist to free Sakura, but that seemed to be all that it took and Yue collapsed, falling against Sakura. "Sakura-chan... Is she..." He couldn't finish his question.

Sakura shook her head. "She's alive, but her chakra is dangerously low. Whatever that power was, it caused more damage to her than she did to me. It completely chewed up her chakra reserves and aggravated all her wounds..." To cement that point, Sakura pulled her hand away from the side of Yue's head, showing her bloody palm. The girl was almost ice cold and she was sweating too.

Hinata looked over the hanyō. "H-Her chakra network is temporarily burnt out. She won't be able to use ninjutsu for a few w-weeks at the very least. Even her coils are working slower than a civilians. A-And..."

"What is it?" Kakashi asked.

"I can see O-Or-Orochimaru's chakra in her body," Hinata said. This stutter was more out of fear than her usual timidness.

"With the curse seal, that's to be expected, right?" Shino asked.

Hinata shook her head. "N-Not like that, more like...like how you s-said Kabuto was."

Sakura discretely looked over as much of Yue's body as she could, noting the various scars and a tattoo on her left hip that resembled snake's scales, but no signs of that creepy transformation that Kabuto was undergoing when they saw him not too long ago when he 'thanked' Naruto for helping him find himself. A scan with her medical ninjutsu showed that there were various abnormalities with Yue's body, mostly with her newer scars. The eye patch seemed to have a seal of some sort on it, making it impossible for any form of chakra examination of a fair section of her skull.

Kiba, Shino and Akamaru were the first ones to turn, getting ready for the new arrival. Naruto looked and quickly moved between them and his teammates. "No matter what, I won't let you near them, Uchiha Itachi!"

The Uchiha looked directly at Naruto, his sharingan off and his let hand clutching his chest. "That Yue... She couldn't have been killed by Sasuke, so where is she?"

Naruto drew a kunai. "I told you that you won't-"

"Itachi... Give it up."

Everyone looked to Yue, who had her eye barely open. "We failed...miserably. We don't have any reasons to continue with the...acts."

"What act?" Itachi calmly asked.

"Neither of us are true missing-nin. We never cut ties to our villages, we just did what we felt...we had to do to prepare others for the...future," Yue said.

"I haven't killed Sasuke yet," Itachi said.

"Just drop it! Did you really think things would change if he killed you? He's the exact opposite of what you wanted him to be! Him killing you would just make him worse!" Yue snapped, then coughed a few times, blood coming up as well. "Shit... Sakura, you're chakra control is fucking scary!"

Itachi sighed. "Yue, you always did manage to give me and Shisui headaches. You also were able to read us like open books."

Yue grinned slightly. "Itachi, flattery will get you nowhere with me. You messed up big, brushing me off like your little brother that time. My ninjutsu scores fell two points when you left. I'll make you pay for that."

"I'm confused," Kiba muttered. Akamaru whined a bit, agreeing.

"There is much to explain and it will take a few days to return to Konoha with Yue in that state. During that time, I will do my best to explain what I can, but there are certain things I must keep silent on, since I don't know what repercussions my words may have," Itachi said.

"Itachi, get my jacket..." Yue said.

Itachi looked to Yue as if she had grown a second head. "Just leave it."

"I'm Akatsuki either way, whether missing-nin or not. Pain granted me the right to wear that jacket and I will until it is reduced to threads, ashes or I'm dead," Yue insisted.

Itachi took out a scroll and rolled it out. He rolled the jacket onto the scroll and sealed it away, not wanting to lug that heavy thing around. He and everyone else present swore that nobody else in the world would wear such a thing, not anyone in their right mind anyway.

_[Konoha, same time]_

"Guy-sensei! I found even heavier weights!" Lee exclaimed.

"Lee-kun, maybe you should visit a tailor and have weights placed in your flak jacket, like me!" Guy boldly stated while pointing to the hidden weights. (little did he know, his were lighter than Lee's)

"Ossu! I will do that, Guy-sensei!" Lee shouted.

Everyone turned away to avoid the eventual sunset illusion.

_[Uchiha hideout ruins]_

Everyone shivered, thinking that something beyond horrifying just happened somewhere.

"Well, we got Itachi and Yue, so maybe now we can get some answers," Kakashi said. He and Yamato placed chakra restraints on Itachi, leaving Yue alone since she couldn't do anything at all for the time being, not that chakra restraints even worked on her.

_[A few days later. Konoha hospital]_

Tsunade, Shizune, Sakura and Ino were present, as per Yue's request. The elders were present as well, against Yue's request, though they were in the viewing booth. Itachi was standing nearby, dressed in a surgeon's somck and looking as happy as a cat caught outside in a monsoon. His expertise was needed, whatever that meant. He was no medic, so why was he here? Maybe Yue just wanted him to see her injuries, to learn how far gone Sasuke was.

The scroll Yue mentioned had been checked for traps, laid out and examined by seal experts to ascertain what it was. When it was revealed that it was just a simple, small capacity medical storage seal that couldn't handle any form of dangerous summoning jutsu, bomb or virus. Tsunade had it brought in and gave Ino the duty of unsealing it, since she wouldn't be assisting much in this particular operation, she was just a witness.

Sakura and Shizune were making notes of Tsunade's scans of Yue's state when Ino cried out, making them turn to see what had been in the scroll.

A container, or a jar to be exact, with a clear fluid and...

"Is that..." Shizune started.

"Kami!" Itachi gasped as he stumbled back, knocking over a trolley of surgical tools.

Everyone looked to Itachi, seeing him staring at Yue. They looked down and saw that her eye patch had come undone alongside the scroll's seal, revealing what lay beneath. Ino quickly scampered out of the room, the sound of retching reaching their ears quite clearly.

_[Five hours later, behind the hospital]_

Ino sat on a bench, unable to believe what she had seen. She knew that, as a medical ninja, she'd see some horrible things, but what she had seen was worse than anything she could have imagined, and that message that Yue had on the top of the container, it was chilling and made her question lots of things she thought she knew.

Sakura came out the door, wiping at her hands in spite of nothing having gotten onto them. It was just the _sensation_ she had felt through her surgical gloves that bothered her and she had no doubt that she'd have nightmares for a long time, especially since she had been subject to Yue's method of showing her that she truly didn't know anything at all about her teammates, that they were deeper than she could have imagined.

"Sakura... How did it go?" Ino asked. After throwing up, she couldn't go back into the room.

Sakura sat down. "We did the best we could. There wasn't much we could do except heal her, but other than that... I..."

"Sakura, did you read the top of the container?" Ino asked.

"Yes," Sakura said after a few moments, "she was telling the truth too."

"What? How could you know that?" Ino asked.

"I don't know really. When Yue stared into my eye and those green flames went into me, I saw things, things she obviously saw. I think... I think she shared her memories with me," Sakura said.

"Forehead, that's not possible. Yamanaka can do that, nobody else can," Ino stated.

"Who knows what demons can do? She's a hanyō, so maybe she can," Sakura countered. After a few moments, Sakura turned slightly to face her friend. "Ino, about that injury..."

Ino stood up. "Sasuke-k... He's... Sakura, I don't know what to think of him anymore."

"Ino..." Sakura muttered.

Ino looked to the sky. "Sakura, he ripped Yue's left eye out. Carved up her face even after she couldn't fight anymore! You say that she gave you her memories, so you should know if it's true."

_[Flashback]_

Yue screamed as Sasuke finished removing her left eye. He placed it in a jar of preservative fluids. He stared at it for a moment, looking at the pattern of her mangekyō sharingan. "The same eyes as Itachi... So you really did kill your 'best friend.' For all your talk, you are surprisingly evil, aren't you?"

"You bastard!" Yue roared as she shot up a bit.

Slice!

Yue fell back to the ground, feeling a burning pain in her right shoulder.

"Shut up! I don't need sermons from something like you! You and my brother, both of you are monsters who kill for power! I don't need the mangekyō to defeat either one of you because I'm greater than the likes of you!" Sasuke shouted.

Yue tried to move, but that last one was mostly from adrenaline. She was drained of strength. _'If that Uzumaki girl comes over, I can replenish my chakra a bit by biting her. Strange ability, probably bullshit too.'_

Sasuke sat on Yue's stomach, sheathing his sword as he did so. "I'm going to punish you," he said as he drew a kunai and held it on the side of Yue's vision that was now gone, a crackling was heard. Before she or anyone else could say anything, Yue felt pain near her eye socket and screamed, but Sasuke shut her up with his free hand as he kept working on her.

"I'm going to leave you with your eye, so that you know how easy it was for me to take one," he stated as he drew a line through her skin with his kunai, then started on another, "try to interfere with my revenge again and I'll do more than pull out an eye and disfigure you!" He completed the 'brand,' rather happy with his twisted work.

With the damage done, Sasuke placed the container next to Yue, making sure it wouldn't roll away or fall over. "Nobody will put it back in your head. Enjoy having your eye so close, yet so far. Karin, heal her so that she won't die here. I still have uses for her, and I want her to suffer as much as a wretch like her should."

_[Flashback end]_

Sakura shivered at that, it being the last in a line of memories Yue had shared with her. Yue's left eye was surrounded by scar tissue that would more than likely never heal right, permanently marking the girl. At least they were able to get her eye back in and reattach all the nerves and muscles, meaning it would hopefully start to function as soon as she fully healed, relatively speaking. It still bothered Sakura that the skin around Yue's left eye would probably resemble a monster's, but there was little they could do since it was all scar tissue and they couldn't graft skin to such a delicate area.

She didn't deserve it. Nobody, not even the most twisted monster alive deserved that...butchery.

"What did Yue ever do to deserve that? I'm starting to think that everyone is right about Sasuke," Ino said.

Sakura frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Everyone is saying that Sasuke is a monster, that he's a willing traitor," Ino said.

"That's not true! He's-" Sakura started.

Slap!

"Wake up! Orochimaru is dead and Sasuke didn't even bother looking, forget coming back! He chose to abandon the village three years ago and he's not coming back!" Ino shouted.

Sakura started to tear up, remembering his cold eyes from when they had found him at Orochimaru's hideout. To him, it seemed like they weren't worth his time, like they were beneath him in every way. His only interest in Konoha had been one thing: killing Naruto.

"Yue's been trying to tell you and Naruto that, hasn't she? I remember what you told me after I found out she was alive, so why did I figure it out before you? Aren't you the smart one?" Ino asked.

Sakura slumped to the ground. "I just..."

"What is it Sakura?" Ino asked.

Sakura looked up, tears in her eyes. "I just don't want to lose them. I want my team back!"

Ino drew Sakura into a hug, now knowing that her desire to bring Sasuke back was nowhere near as selfish as some people thought. It wasn't so that she could have the one she loved to be by her side again, it was just so Sakura could have her extended family back. Having lost Asuma, Ino understood Sakura's feelings a bit, but...

"Sakura, the Sasuke you and Naruto want to return, I don't think he exists anymore," Ino said.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

Ino closed her eyes. "The Sasuke you knew is gone. He's grown into someone else, someone darker. You have Yue's memories, so you should be able to see how he is now. Do you think things will work out with that type of person?"

Sakura wanted to deny it, but Yue had also given over the knowledge of the curse seals that she had, meaning Sakura knew that the seals drew on the latent darkness of a person, it didn't create it. Sasuke would have eventually wound up this way, one way or another.

"Ino... What do you think of Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked.

"Honestly, I think he needs some serious help. He already removed her eye, then he cut up her face. Scarring a woman's face is a no-no," Ino said.

"Do you like him still?" Sakura asked.

Ino shook her head. "No, I actually gave up on him about a year ago. I've been looking around lately, but the pickings are slim."

"What about Naruto?" Sakura asked, a grin on her face.

"Kami no! I mean, he's kinda cute and he's pretty strong, but I can't see him as anything more than a friend. Besides, I treated him badly as a kid, so I think it'd just be weird to ask him out or anything, like it was all some kind of extreme tsundere plot to isolate him from other girls so I'd be the only one he could be with," Ino said as she released Sakura from the hug. To even suggest that, wow, just wow.

Sakura chuckled a bit. "So Shikamaru and Choji are out?"

"They're like brothers to me, and Temari would flay me alive and use my skin to make a new fan if I went after Shikamaru," Ino muttered at the end.

Sakura had noticed the 'Desert Rose' had been awfully close to Shikamaru of late, and she could see her killing Ino for even hinting at seeing the lazy Nara as a possible romantic partner. "Sai?"

Ino frowned slightly, sort of resembling Naruto when he was younger and thinking. "He's good looking but...he doesn't seem to be...all there, so to speak."

Sakura nodded in agreement. Sai was just too weird sometimes because of his upbringing. "What about Yue?"

Ino paled. "Are you suggesting I give up on men?"

Sakura smiled a bit. "If the pickings, men, are slim, why not try your own 'team,' so to speak?"

"Come on Forehead! Are you telling me to go lez? I know some guys fantasize about that kinda thing, probably involving me and you with a most likely small part of themselves between us, but it doesn't really work at all!" Ino shouted.

"But she does love you, a lot too. I felt that in her memories. You are actually part of why she was a missing-nin," Sakura pointed out.

Ino blushed a bit, remembering the then small girl's confession almost four years ago. "She abandoned the village because of me? That's not inspiring much confidence..."

"Yue left because protecting you from inside of the village was, in her eyes, impossible. She's not like Naruto, she can't let so many people into her heart because she's afraid of being hurt, but she decided long ago to fiercely protect those who were let in. That's why she was called the Feral Feline, because she fought so hard to protect her team and sensei. It was like watching a wild tiger fighting to protect its young. She only survived with Akatsuki for three years because she knew that her assassinating killers, crooks and cons would protect you and those precious to her in some way. Without you and those few people in her heart, it would have just been senseless murder," Sakura explained.

Ino blushed a bit harder. She had been on a handful of dates before, been confessed to numerous times as well, but to think someone loved her enough to abandon all they cared for just to protect her, that was head and shoulders above anything that a boy had ever done for her. Heck, one freaky guy took her to a maid cafe, a MAID cafe, but the food and drinks were amazing there, making it Ino's favorite place to go and relax. (that and the maids called her 'hime-sama') Boys and young men had said they'd lay their lives on the line for her before, but none had actually done it. Yue, on the other hand, seemed ready and willing to step between Ino and a fatal blow for nothing more than knowing Ino would survive.

"Are you considering it?" Sakura asked, a devious smirk on her face.

"Wha- N-No! I'm straight! If my dad knew what you were suggesting, there would be no limit to what he'd mind control you into doing! You'd wake up in Naruto's bed, naked and begging him to ride you til sunrise!" Ino shouted, completely red.

"I think you swing both ways, Ero-pig," Sakura accused, a sly smile on her face.

"At least I didn't turn into a female Jiraiya-sama for BL and yaoi, you fake prude!" Ino shouted while pointing at Sakura.

"Th-Th-That was just-" Sakura stuttered, beet red as she struggled to come up with an excuse.

"You called Naruto a perv and all this time, but it was you who was a pervert all along! I swear that you dream of Naruto and Sasuke getting it on while you watch, you rotten washboard!" Ino pressed on.

"At least I wasn't kissed by a girl before!" Sakura shouted, angry, embarrassed and just saying anything at all to shut Ino up. Worst part was that she HAD a dream like that before.

"And? It was on the forehead, not the lips. Besides, girls kissing each other doesn't count," Ino countered.

"Is that how little Yue-sama means to you?"

The two girls turned to see Nohara Rin standing there, a somewhat cool cool on her face. It was hard to believe that this woman, who looked no older than eighteen, was actually Kakashi's age. Yōki had its advantages.

"W-Well she is a girl, and I'm not really interested in other girls..." Ino muttered, unable to look at the medic.

"Then tell her that," Rin said.

"She's recovering, the shock might-" Ino started.

"That's an excuse. You just don't want to face her, coward," Rin growled.

Ino blinked. "What the hell is your problem?"

"I appreciate Yue-sama's kindness, unlike you. If Yue-sama went as far for me as she does you, I would answer her confession. I wouldn't leave her hanging for almost four years," Rin stated.

"It's not that easy to turn someone down," Ino said.

Rin shook her head. "I turned down lots of boys back when I was in Kakashi-kun's team. I let them down easy and as quickly as I could. To leave them without an answer for so long is to give them hope. The longer you wait, the harder it will be on them." She looked to the sky, seeing a vaguely bird shaped cloud lazily floating by. "Yue-sama's emotions are more delicate than you think, like the thinnest crystal. Your silence hurts her more than your words. Being ignored hurts her a lot more than being hated. She doesn't vent her emotional pain, just leaves it to fester in her like a flesh eating disease."

Sakura winced slightly, remembering how Naruto had been when he was a kid. He hid it well, but Sakura had caught his crushed expression a few times as she and all the other kids were taken away after he showed up. She had just ignored it because Naruto was a nobody that all the adults could care less about, so why should any of the kids care? Rin's words came back to haunt her, telling her that her reasoning, at the time, had been a flimsy excuse, a coward's way of escaping guilt. The worst part is that Sakura had, until the exams, kept using that stupid excuse to chase away her guilt when it came to her dealings with Naruto.

"Are you saying that me not talking to her is worse than an entire village wanting her to leave or be executed?" Ino asked.

Rin looked back into Ino's eyes, pain reflecting in her brown eyes. "Yes, it is worse than any wound she has suffered. It is the only wound I cannot heal for her. Even death and Hell's punishment hurt her less than your silence."

Both Ino and Sakura were silent. Sakura was thinking of how her and Naruto's situation was similar to Yue and Rin's. Naruto had wounds that medical ninjutsu couldn't even begin to touch, even if Sakura were to suddenly gain Tsunade's ability overnight on top of her own, she couldn't do anything to remove those old scars. Ino knew that Rin was right, but facing someone who sacrificed so much for you, so much for nothing, she might as well go in there and carve Yue's heart out herself.

"Rin! That's where you were!"

Tayuya came up, chakra seals still wrapping her wrists, curse seal and neck. "The Kage's looking for you."

Rin nodded and turned to leave, but shot a cold glare at Ino. "I won't let you be the one to heal Yue-sama's scarred heart, I will do it myself."

Once the medic walked away, Sakura turned to Tayuya. "Uh, is she?"

Tayuya nodded slightly. "She fell in love with Nee-san a little while after they met. Apparently, Nee-san saved her from being eaten by the wolf demons and the wolf summons, so Rin decided to follow her to pay the life debt. Somewhere along the way, I noticed that Rin's way of looking at Nee-san changed. Admiration became attraction."

Ino felt a slight stab in her chest, then shook it off. _'So what if __that woman__ is after the neko-nin. I have NO interest in her as a __romantic__ partner!'_

"You're that Yamanaka girl that Nee-san has the hots for? Well, if you were a bit older, I might try you out. Well, Nee-san would probably go wild and suck every drop of chakra out of me while grinding my skull into dust, so I'll just leave ya alone," Tayuya said after looking Ino from head to toe.

"What the hell?! Did Yue go to a lesbian gathering to find you two or something?" Ino asked, covering herself as best as she could.

"Hey! I've been a lesbian from day one! Guys are fucking lazy and dirty, girls are cute and they make the sweetest noise when surprised or pleasured! Rin only switched teams after falling in love with Nee-san and we all know Nee-san has been eying you for a long time now!" Tayuya roared.

"Team Lezzy Cat... I thought I heard it all," Ino whined.

Tayuya glared at the blonde girl. "I see that Nee-san fell in love with your looks at first, since Rin was right about you: you're a spineless coward and you're personality is as appealing as a bag of burning shit." She shook her head and started to walk away.

"Hey! I'm not done with you yet!" Ino shouted, not wanting to be the loser in an argument.

Tayuya looked back and stuck out her tongue while giving the blonde the finger. "Fuck off grasshopper! You're a million years too young to be fighting me. Besides, I need another interrogation session with Anko_-chan_, since I'm not telling her e-ver-y-thing~ yet!" She took off with a very slight skip in her step.

"Oh Kami, she's got a thing for that dango loving, female version of Naruto?" Sakura asked, shocked. She never thought she'd see the day when someone fell for that crazy woman.

"Freak in love," Ino said, explaining it all in three words. She left, deciding that she had something to do, just not today.

Sakura stayed behind the hospital for a while, thinking of what she had been shown, especially an event that took place a week after Naruto first met Yue.

That vicious beating he received after meeting the Feral Feline, one that was so severe that it made him completely forget about her.

_[Two days later, hospital]_

Ino had asked to be contacted when Yue woke up. Sakura, Ino and Shizune had used medical ninjutsu to heal Yue's muscle and skeletal damage, finding the very same problem that had plagued Tayuya before Tsunade figured out how to heal it. It is unknown exactly how it happened, but part of the chakra system that surrounded the spine, mostly between C5 and T4, were damaged and caused progressive, reoccurring damage to the chakra system, resulting in a steady decrease of the victims physical abilities and available chakra reserves. Unlike Yue's original thoughts, Tsunade noticed that the damage had occurred when the two were younger, around the same time Yue first activated the curse seal, meaning that it was most likely caused by the curse seal's ability: chakra siphoning. Plain and simple: Yue's inexperience caused damage to the two of them.

By the time Sakura faced off with her, Yue barely had half her full combat ability and she had lost access to a fifth of her chakra reserves, though combat analysis still stated Yue would have lost while facing Sakura down if she had her full chakra reserve and her injury fixed, only due to Yue having her disabilities and extreme battle fatigue. She would be back to peak performance as soon as she fully recovered, but there was one worrying thing that came up in the medical examinations, as well as one funny thing that made Ino smile, especially when she remembered Naruto's face at the time.

_[Yesterday, Tsunade's office]_

"You called for us, Tsunade-sama?" Kakashi asked.

Tsunade turned to see Team Kakashi, Team Kurenai and Team Asuma gathered. "I've decided that, since all of you had some form of interaction with her, you should all be here to listen to the damage report."

"What about Guy's team?" Choji asked.

"They're outside of the village on a patrol, so I'll debrief them separately. I only decided to do it today because Team Kurenai is going on a mission later this afternoon," Tsunade said as she lifted up a few pages. Truth be told, she didn't want to have to heal everyone present when Guy and Lee went off at the list. "First off, Kazeneko Yue is a slight bit above five feet one inch tall, weighs in at ninety-six pounds due to lean muscle and a lighter skeletal structure. She's completely healed from all her previous injuries, though there is nothing we can do about her left arm and the scar tissue," she looked to Sakura, "did you inform them of _that_ injury?"

Sakura shook her head. "I felt it would be better if you told them."

Tsunade sighed, not liking how things were about to become. "For old injuries, Yue appeared to have suffered a very deep wound to her torso. All my tests seem to indicate that her aorta was pierced, and her teammates confirm this, but that would mean Yue had bled to death in less than five minutes."

Everyone wondered about how she survived such a wound. Maybe her heritage had something to do with it, such as a much higher blood generation level than a normal human.

"She, of course, has the scar across her neck and the old scar on her left bicep. More than fifty percent of her left arm is severely scarred and the muscle function in that arm has sharply decreased. Her right side has deep, but healed lacerations that indicate she tangled with a bear or something really large with claws. She has whip scars around her upper back from a past B-rank mission that ended in failure, her capture and torture for knowledge," Tsunade continued.

Yamato blinked. Those were the kinds of wounds long time jōnin had. Well, he knew about her neck and back scars, but the rest were unusual, Actually, the wounds on her arm were to be expected, considering she went up against Naruto's fūton rasengan with a raiton.

Tsunade sighed, not liking this part. "Her left eye had been removed and the area around it...mangled with a kunai that had lightning chakra flowing along it. We managed to reconnect the nerves and muscles, then reattached her eyeball to the optic nerves and set it in place as well as aligned it properly. We did our best to fix her eyelid and the surrounding tissue, but she is badly scarred."

"Wait, her eye was ripped out?!" Kiba shouted, a shade or two paler than a moment ago.

"Who did that?" Shino asked.

"It was Sasuke," Ino said.

Hinata fainted and Shino looked away, very slightly. "What the hell is his problem?" Kiba asked.

"More than likely, he saw Yue's mangekyō as an insult to him, who doesn't have mangekyō in spite of being an Uchiha, and decided to tear one out to make her less of a threat to him," Kakashi theorized, "I noticed it before, Sasuke has both a superiority complex and an inferiority complex, a very rare thing to see in one person. Yue having superior sharingan stimulated the latter and threatened the former, just like Naruto and his rapid growth."

"He got the wrong one though, Yue-san projects Amaterasu from her right eye. He removed the one that causes less damage," Yamato pointed out.

Kakashi shook his head. "I think he had an idea of what he was doing. I think that being subjected to Tsukuyomi twice in his life has given him an ingrained fear of the jutsu. For him, being slowly burned to death with Amaterasu is preferable to being subjected to Tsukuyomi torture again and again."

"What is her eyesight like?" Sakura asked, remembering how Kakashi mentioned the mangekyō's weakness.

"We won't know until she wakes up, but with her using Amaterasu so much as well as awakening that 'Susanoo' a while ago, I wouldn't go expecting too much," Tsunade admitted.

"How come she didn't heal from any of her wounds? I thought that she was like me, a fast healer," Naruto asked.

"According to Tayuya and Rin, this is a drawback to heavy usage of the reimyō buki. The sheer power they produce causes a person's healing factor to be reduced. Using too many in too short of a time makes it so that the person cannot heal anymore and needs external help, such as a medic constantly working on the wounds," Tsunade said, reading from Anko's report. She flipped back to her and Shizune's report. "On a final note, Kazeneko Yue is 100% virgin."

"Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-what?!" Naruto stuttered out, turning completely red.

"Yue's hymen is intact," Tsunade said.

"Huh?" Naruto's jaw fell open, not understanding anything at all.

"It means nobody banged her yet, idiot," Kiba snorted. He smirked as Naruto turned even redder.

"But don't girls usually tear their hymen during taijutsu practice? With her being so skilled with it, you'd think she broke it back in the academy," Ino pointed out. She freaked out when she found out hers was gone, mostly due to the blood she found. Took her mother twenty minutes to calm her down and explain. That was not the kind of thing a ten year old was used to.

"Shizune and me think that it stretched, but Yue's healing factor is high enough that it reversed the stretching and preserved her virginity. All I can say is that she would be able to experience true loss of her virginity, unlike most kunoichi. Well, she has no interest in men, so I doubt that will happen," Tsunade said as she put the report down, "any questions?"

There were lots of questions, mostly things like if Yue's status as a missing-nin being revoked.

_[Flashback end]_

Ino pushed open the door to the room, seeing Yue standing at the window, looking outside.

"Ino? Is that you?" the hanyō asked without turning, though Ino could see that Yue had sniffed the air due to the window reflecting Yue's half bandaged face.

"Y-yes," the Yamanaka answered.

Yue placed her hands on the window, leaning in close to squint. "Ino, did Konoha change much since I left it?"

"Can't you see for yourself?" Ino asked without thinking.

Yue turned, her uncovered right eye squinting slightly. "Without my sharingan active, everything is too blurry to make out details. I hope my left eye is better off..."

Ino hung her head. "I'm sorry I said that."

"It's my fault alone that I'm like this. I knew what using my jutsu would do to me. Awakening the Susanoo let me know that the countdown had started, and now I think the clock is beginning to wind down," Yue said as she went back to looking out the window.

Ino decided to end her solo dance around the subject. "Yue... About that confession you gave me..."

Yue held her scar covered left arm up, which was thankfully still covered by her bandage/armor combo. No matter what was tried, those couldn't be removed at all. Tsunade assumed that they were somehow sealed onto Yue, sort of like how her eye patch had been. "You don't need to say anything at all..."

"But-" Ino started.

"Who would want to be with a monster like me? Nobody is stupid enough to truly love me anymore, they'll just end up like Jin: shredded gore on my claws," Yue cut in.

Ino was shocked at this. Yue had always struck her as headstrong, confident and impossible to sadden. The only time she had ever seen the hanyō not smiling confidently was during the Sandaime's funeral, where she hid off in the tree line and cried quietly to herself. Could Yue have a self-defeating personality?

"If I were a normal human. If I were just human..." Yue stopped for a moment, then sighed. "Ino, I loved you because you are beautiful, far more beautiful than I ever could be. You are so radiant it almost blinded me, who has always lived in darkness. You have a confidence that I've never seen shake, even in the face of powerful opponents. I never saw you falter once, never saw you react to any insult that was thrown at you, aside from Sakura's."

"Yue..." Ino breathed, a blush crossing her cheeks.

"But then I got to see you more, u, I mean learn about you," Yue said.

Ino frowned. _'I don't like the way this is going...'_

"I know that you're horrible at cooking, that your first batch of cupcakes emptied a classroom for two days and laid your father out for an entire week, that the doctors had to pump his stomach so he'd survive the food poisoning. I once found you making Shikamaru and Choji do all the work during a D-rank mission while you rested in the shade because it was very hot. I found out that you cannot resist good clothes and sometimes make your father buy them for you if you spent all your money on other outfits. I once saw you sleeping with a fashion magazine fallen on your head when you were supposed to be minding the register of the flower shop. I even know about the time you accidentally ran out of your home after forgetting your underwear and went the whole day in just a skirt, blouse and bandages because you woke up very late," Yue rattled off. That last one was obvious because Ino forgot both of them, meaning you could clearly see her nervousness concerning her skirt and, well, you can guess about the top. Ino had avoided water like it was a plague bog that day.

Ino was completely red now and her mind was stuttering worse than Hinata in front of all of Konoha trying to admit that she loved Naruto while hyped up on sugar loaded coffee. Basically, after removing the stuttering, her thoughts were somewhere along these lines: _'How does she know all of that? Stupid question, she's a skilled ninja, but those are some of the most embarrassing things that have happened in my entire life! This is so mortifying! If Forehead learned of any of this, I'd have to leave Konoha in shame!'_

Yue smiled, but refused to turn to look at the girl, not that she'd be able to see her as clearly as she would like to. "It was...nice finding all of that out about you."

Ino's mind calmed, wondering what the hanyō was going on about.

"I was no better than a fan girl, idealizing you, thinking you were perfect. Seeing that you were just as flawed as any normal human, it made you seem so much closer to a wretched beast like me. I think... No, you did steal my heart at that time. I liked you before when I confessed to you, but after learning all of that, I fell for you so hard that it hurt to walk under Akatsuki's colors, to hide in the darkest of shadows again. I wanted to be wrapped in the light you produced, even if it destroyed me," Yue said, feeling her face heat up as her heart became a drum in her chest.

Ino was blushing too and, surprising even to herself, her heart was hammering in her chest. Most guys went on about her looks and such, but none ever said that her faults attracted them. Nobody, aside from her parents, ever said that they loved her when they knew of her flaws. She chalked it off as embarrassment. No way she was falling in love with another girl! She was NOT that Tayuya girl! YAMANAKA INO WAS STAIGHT!

"But that doesn't matter. I'm hanyō, a demon's child. I can't bring happiness to anyone. Anyone who I tried to bring happiness to has suffered or died. Shisui-senpai, Saru-jiji and Jin died. Itachi-senpai was forced to kill his family and live as a monster, you and Sakura were forced to witness Sasuke's descent into darkness, Naruto is tortured from within and out, Anko's treated like a volatile bomb," Yue said, then lowered her head, "I'm just a black cat, a bringer of woe, a sign of bad luck when I cross your path. A weapon of living flesh, bone and blood. I'm no ninja at all... just a damned demon waiting for the day I'm finally purged from this world, all to make it a better place."

Now there was a very different pain in Ino's chest. Was this the real Yue, the one nobody was allowed to see?

"Ino, you and the others may hate me for this, but I'm going to find Sasuke and, if my last attempt to save him from his darkness fails, I will tear his life out after I destroy his eyes," Yue said as she glared out the window, her mangekyō flickering weakly as it activated, her vision's sharpness rising more and more as the chakra in her eyes grew stronger.

"What did you say?" Karin asked, shocked.

Sasuke glared forward, his inverted mangekyō seeing the world for what it 'really' was. "I will destroy Konoha and you three will help me," he stated as the red lines on his black eyes began to glow.

**A/N~**

There's chapter 37. In case anyone hasn't figured it out by now, Yue's left arm is basically crippled by shinobi standards, severely limiting her abilities. She can perform hand seals and use non-combat ninjutsu with her left arm, but striking is impossible due to her arm and grip strength dropping to levels that make using even kunai impossible.

I want you people to know that, since before Kaguya's appearance (I predicted that she'd appear as a bad guy, Madara was too weak and the Sage appearing suggested his mother or brother was going to appear as the Big Bad), I pretty much had the end of KTD planned out almost in full, just missing a few details between what I have written out and the very end, and I already had a general idea of the various events that will take place in the sequel. I am telling you people this so that nobody can accuse me of stealing ideas, since I had already decided on the details I wanted in the sequel. First off, all of the Kaguya battle will be canon, so it will be skipped. OC Villain #2, the one I mentioned last time, will appear and, well, you need to read on to find out. Here is a spoiler though: this character will not say "I know all ninjutsu," and then use a grand total of three jutsu, like Kaguya. This character will be firing off new ninjutsu left and right, and they will actually do things instead of floating in the air talking to a blob of black goo while the heroes plot on how to defeat them. This character will truly shake the world, because this character is the final antagonist of KTD, their defeat will not be simple and it will take longer than a few hours to defeat them.

Now I have made a slight change to the sequel and it is a good one: Ōtsutsuki Toneri, from the last Naruto movie, will appear in the sequel and he will be the initial antagonist. Now this works out because of what I had planned and it actually ties in quite well with K3D's plot. As for why I think Toneri is targeting Hinata, I think it is because, well, I think Hinata is also part of the Ōtsutsuki clan. Her eyes are similar to Kaguya's which is unusual, since most Hyuga eyes are almost the same color all over, not pearl like Hinata and, to a lesser extent, Hanabi. He could be trying to kidnap her so she could be his bride, so that their children can bring about another Rabbit Goddess, since they probably lost most of the pure blood in their clan.

Anyway, even if the movie goes in a different direction with the reason why Hinata is being targeted, other than to create a relationship out of nothing, Toneri will appear in K3D with that purpose in mind when it comes to Hinata, along with mass genocide of the human race. And as a final note, Naruto will NOT fall for Hinata in the sequel, she'll just be the primary target of Toneri, who is not going to drop the moon, the home of his people, on Earth. The bulk of K3D will, as I've said before, take place outside of the Elemental Nations with new foes who use powers unlike those of a ninja, and Hinata, as well as Sasuke, will find love out there. (Not canon characters, OCs)

**Omake-**

**The woe of an OC**

"What the fuck?!" Yue shouted.

I sigh, turning away from one of my many weavings. "What is it now?"

"I was reading the script and I can't believe you are going to do this to me!" the hanyō shouted.

My other creations shake their heads, unable to believe that she still thought she wouldn't be dealt the shitty end of the stick still. Excele isn't kind to his creations, not like most writers, he put them through Hell because it built character. Sadly, Yue appeared to be too young to know this already. Well, with her being a revolving OC, maybe she'd learn in time.

"Which version are we talking about?" I asked.

"Two Demons! Seriously, it's the only one that you are working on all the time that I appear in!" the irate girl snapped.

I looked at what she was pointing at and sighed again. "Don't blame me, I just have a plan for you and that event will make it happen."

Yue sulked in a corner. "I just want to get with Ino and Rin already... The fans are begging for it too!"

"Soon enough. Now get back to work, Naruto and the others won't know what to do if you don't convert that into paper script and hand it over to them," I lightly ordered.

"Can you get someone else to do it?" Yue asked.

I looked at her, frowning slightly. "Why?"

Yue looked away, sweating a bit. "That Hinata can be scary sometimes. She keeps asking me when she'll get a script from you that involves her and Naruto hooking up. She came at me with a knife last time. Her eyes went dark."

"I'll get to it some day, but she's difficult to write and it's even more difficult getting that blockhead to notice her feelings without a diamond drill, a stratospheric jet, bolts and a frying pan," I explained. Do not make me tell you how that all works.

All my creations, who are reading what I've read so far in Naruto, all nodded in agreement. Naruto's density was on par with a black hole.

**I've got something for you guys-**

I was writing a fic and I was presented with the dilemma of many a writer: a hole in the plot, a soon-to-be corpse shaped hole. Like many writers who were in conflict over this problem, I decided to fill it with a person that people would want dead from the get-go. This guy is great for the role, so good that I decided to share him with all the writers and readers of this fic.

Name: Yikio Toshi

Ages-

Part I: 12

Part II: 15

Clan: Yikio

Abilities-

Unknown ability: It is unknown how, but the Yikio can use a genjutsu/ninjutsu hybrid to produce the most deadly counter possible: the enemy's own attacks. Many believe that this ability encompasses numerous elements, though it cannot be proven how it functions.

Elements-

Water

Jutsu-

Various Medical ninjutsu (mostly water based)

Various water release jutsu (his strongest is water dragon bullet)

**Hansha-tai **[Body Reflection] – A jutsu that functions in a way that is impossible for even the sharingan to comprehend. It somehow causes the injuries the user would suffer to be transferred to the person who the user is staring at, normally the one dealing the damage, without the user suffering any damage. Drawbacks include only being able to target one person at a time, a radius that the target has to be within for the jutsu to function, a 'threshold' of damage that the user can 'suffer' before the jutsu is rendered ineffective and the death of the targeted person results in the jutsu failing. It is theorized that this is a jutsu that uses earth release to protect the body and wind to cause the damage, but this is unconfirmed.

Appearance: The first thing people know about Yikio Toshi when they get close enough is his eyes. Something in them is either dirty or missing, since they give people the feeling that he's a sociopath or psychopath, possibly even both. Yikio's all tend to have jade eyes and dull grey hair, traits that Toshi has. He tends to wear sleeveless shirts, cloth or leather bracers and full shinobi pants, generally darker colors as well, with a pair of grey shinobi sandals. He is described as attractive, a 'pretty boy' if you will, but then his mouth opens and sound comes out. He tends to have his hair a bit long, enough to fall into his eyes at the front and go a bit below his neck at the back. When he gets older, his features sharpen and he looks a bit older, but his growing insanity makes him look like he's lost sleep.

Personality: Yikio Toshi is a spoiled rotten little shit, that's the first thing people learn about him. The money put into his clothes alone can greatly assist those who need it, but the fact that he also hired the best possible tutors in all subjects, actually bought people in the clan council and many of the civilian representatives makes him a giant sink hole of money, a hole his parents are more than willing to dump their nearly unlimited funds into.

Due to his extreme sense of entitlement, he believes that his will should be followed by all, unless they are people he has deemed worthy of owning their own freedom. The few people who deserve to be free, in his opinion, are Sasuke and Ino. For Toshi, Sasuke is someone to aspire to be like, to model one's self after, so he tends to put people down who of are lower standing and is more than ready to kick Naruto when he's down. Other than that, Toshi is a shameless brown noser of the Nth degree.

When it comes to Ino, Toshi seems to have some kind of possessive crush on her. He believes that, if Sasuke shows no interest in Ino, that she should naturally hook up with him and him alone. He believes that nobody other than Sasuke and himself are worthy of Ino and, on more than one occasion, has shown that he might be mentally unbalanced when it comes to her. He has been caught stalking her a few times, but he tends to pay off the ninja who find him or threaten them.

Toshi is also noted to be very, VERY pro-clan. To him, 'clanless trash' shouldn't be allowed to become ninja, that they should be the 'civilian rabble that support ninja.' People who are from clans, but weren't given the 'proper upbringing' of their clan are also unfit to become ninja. Out of all the clan members that Toshi finds unworthy, Hinata stands at the top due to her being so meek and weak compared to even the weaker members of the branch house.

Despite his nasty personality, his loyalty is Konoha is great, his talent is a few steep steps below Sasuke's and his parents fund a lot of programs in Konoha, meaning he and his clan are a necessary evil, one that most people do well to ignore.

After abandoning the village to join Sasuke in Oto and, later, joining Akatsuki's army for the war, he has clearly lost his mind entirely, believing Ino is merely going through the motions of being a loyal ninja, all while wanting to be by his side. He views the members of his clan as being pathetic trash that is unwilling to embrace the future of the world, stubbornly clinging to a dying belief. He hates Naruto with a burning passion, calling him the most deluded of fools, the 'Idiot King' (Bakaou) even.

History: All you need from his history is that he scored in the top five of his graduating year and he is completely obsessed with Ino and Sasuke. He's not too skilled in taijutsu, mostly relying on his family jutsu and genjutsu to defeat his foes. He's handy with a kunai and both close and long range.

One other thing to keep is that Ino knows of his feelings for her, but wonders why he likes her at all. She finds it bothersome and just a tiny bit creepy. She is unaware of his stalking until he starts going too far and becomes too visible. (He does sneak pictures of her while she's getting dressed or bathing)

Method of Death: In an ironic twist, I have it so that Ino, the object of his obsessions, is the one who kills him during the war. She always slices a major artery wide open, leaving him to bleed out without giving him a single glance. A fitting end for him.

**Responses-**

**Guest:** Yes, Kakashi will lose his sharingan in this story. I haven't decided on if he will be able to use sharingan again after the war or if he will be like a true Uchiha and be able to call upon the power again. If he does retain sharingan powers, there will be a severe limit upon them, such as being able to use the full power only once per week or something so he isn't so overpowered.

**EliteSlayer103:** Yue's level ups aren't really that, it is just her revealing more of her power. Yue's Susanoo, as you may have noticed, is powering up much slower than Sasuke's, who seemed to fully develop his Susanoo in less than two months, if it even took a month. Yue will not master and stabilize her Susunoo until the war, and she'll need help to do so. Yue's body can handle Susanoo, if she lets herself rest up and heal completely, but she isn't and her taxed reserves were her downfall.

**Thedarkpokemaster:** Glad you liked the last chapter and I wonder how this battle of stubborn desperation was for you. There is more of Yue putting on her doctor cap, so to speak, and instructing people on the reality of the world around them in this chapter, as you have read. And, because it is so much fun, Yuriko will live to perv again. Look forward to it.

**NaruSaku fan 100:** First off, I'm sorry for our mutual loss in Naruto's final chapter. Kishimoto appears to be a woman hating piece of shit and his career is already over. (the last movie is a colossal flop in critic ratings)

Alright, I never said my fights were bad, just that I can't fight at the level of a Naruto character, so my ability to make it feel real(ish) to the readers is a bit shaky. Luckily, I play a ton of games that allow me to do crazy things.

**Sakura fan 55:** Honestly, I'm having a hard time thinking of how to respond. As far as I am concerned, the last two chapters of Naruto are dead to me. I am pissed off about the final two chapters and, if it wasn't for it being them being the final chapters, I wouldn't bother with them at all. They will be placed separate from the rest as a sign of disrespect to a shit ending that seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the series. Other than jacking the main antagonist, his clan, his background and his obsession with Hinata, for the reasons I theorized above, the movie is dead to me as well.

**Super Saiyan Sakura Haruno:** You don't know how many times I've had to switch to the Western naming style when it comes to your chosen handle.

To be honest, to give Sakura more justu related to her chosen profession requires me to look to Kabuto for new jutsu, such as the chakra scalpel. Kishimoto gave Sakura, by far, the worst jutsu loadout of the series, even worse than Hinata's five or so moves, with only three being unique to her and one of them being a half version of a full jutsu.

Sakura will get some unique jutsu during the war and I will reveal what I have decided is the only element that Sakura could have as an affinity, one that will make her a more effective fighter and medic.


End file.
